Just a Stupid Law
by KissingaPirate
Summary: The Minstry wants to close the rifts between pure-bloods and muggleborns. So they decides to match 50 pairs to be married after personality tests and match the people who are most alike. But how on earth did Hermione get matched with Draco? HIATUS DM/HG
1. Chapter One

"**Just a stupid Law"**

A/N: I felt like writing a fun story, not a depressing one with sadness and betrayal like "You're the Only One". So I thought of the old forced Marriage-law between pure-bloods and muggleborns (which I always have found amusing to read, but extremely ridiculous. Honestly, forcing marriage?) But anyway, I decided to write one just for fun. Also, I have seen what politicians can do and what stupid ideas they can come up with, so this will be fitting, hehe. Also, this is a "Go-with-flow" piece. This means I haven't thought this through and the plot can go anywhere at this point. But hopefully, I will get somewhere! A big thank you to wyntter rose for Beta!

AU: Okay, the war is won, but neither of the trio has a real girlfriend/boyfriend. They are either single or dating. Same for Draco Malfoy. He and his family switched sides during the war, since the Malfoy's always side with the winning team. Dumbledore is, sadly, dead. (He would've stopped a law like this, so he can't be a part of this story…)

Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once: If I truly owned Harry Potter, would I sit by my laptop writing fanfic's instead of having this one published? Didn't think so… So all credits go to the fantastic J.K. Rowling and also to the one who came up with the plot of forced marriage.

. . .

**Chapter One**

. . .

Hermione couldn't comprehend what she was reading. The big, black headlines on the newspaper refused to sink in to her mind and stay there.

"What is it 'Mione?" Harry asked when he entered the kitchen area. Completely numb she held out the newspaper to her roommate and stared blankly out in the air. Harry read the black letters quickly and shouted out.

"They can't be serious! That can't even be legal!" At the same time, their fireplace lit up with green fire and Ronald Weasley spun out in their kitchen.

"Hermione! Have you..." he begun but then saw the Daily Prophet in Harry's hand. "Oh, you got it..." Hermione looked up at Ron and nodded with tears in her eyes. Then she focused on the bold letters again:

"**Marriage-law is set in motion!" **

"All these months of work, for nothing!" she said.

Hermione Granger was now 21 years old. She worked at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in Upholding Magical Law and had been doing so since after she graduated from Hogwarts. She was good at her job and she knew that she would be the next Head of the Department when Amelia Bones retired. Her work was to read the reports the Squad sent her and make decisions if a crime had been committed and if it was worth the Wizengamot's time.

She didn't have a boyfriend at the moment. She and Ron used to date, but it didn't really work out. They never had any discussions about anything, since he didn't like discussions. Or simply did not understand the subjects. They had parted as friends though and it had been a rough time getting over each other and finding the "we're such good friends"-spirit again. Now, she and Harry were sharing a flat together in London while Ron lived a few blocks away.

A couple of months ago, a discussion had started at the Minster of Magic. Even though the war had ended three years ago the rifts between muggleborns and purebloods were intact. Someone had suddenly popped the idea "We should force muggleborns and purebloods to marry!"

Well, they did not put it that way. It sounded more like:

"Let's unit the two groups in a more bonding way. If we can show the wizard world that these groups can live together as husband and wife, more and more will follow that lead! And to do that we will have to convince some to agree to that, but in the end it will benefit our whole community. With this law, we will help people. And in these days it's important to close the rifts before someone can pull them even more apart. I'm sure everyone will realize this and think of the greater good."

_Greater Good_, indeed. Hermione had done everything she could to stop this law. It had to be illegal to force someone to marry against their will. She was a human being and she had rights!

The idea of how this forced marriage would be carried through was that only a few would be put in this "program" as they called it. Not everyone would be forced like this, but at least 50 pairs would be forced.

"So, what are we going to do about it?" Ron asked and looked at Harry then at Hermione.

"I don't know." She answered. "I can't do anything about it now. I work at that department, but the majority has voted and that's final."

"What if... what if you married someone you know? I mean a friend. That wouldn't be too bad, right?"

"I guess not, but still. Who would give up love to save me? If someone married me so I wouldn't have to marry someone else, he would give up his own chance of being happily married. Besides, we don't know if I am being chosen or if any of you will be." Hermione sighed, she wasn't clear on how this would be carried through. If she was chosen to the program, would she be allowed to choose whom she would marry for herself or would they do it?

"I must go to work and get a sense of this. The article mentions that they will contact the witches and wizards that have been chosen this afternoon. Maybe I can get a sneak-peak at the list and also find out how this will be done."

Harry and Ron nodded and Hermione went to her room to change to her work robe. Harry offered some coffee to Ron who gratefully took a cup.

"See ya later, guys," Hermione said and flooed to her work.

. . .

Draco sat outside in the backyard of his Manor and let the sun warm his face. He loved springtime. The perfect warmth and the fresh air combined always made him pleased. A small 'pop' next to him announced the house elf.

"Mr. Malfoy, sir? Hemmy has the newspaper for sir and his morning-tea ready."

"Thanks, you can put it on the table."

"Yes, sir. Hemmy will do that!" The small female house elf put the tray on the small table next to him. He reached for the cup of tea and took a sip before he reached for the newspaper. He hadn't swallowed his tea yet when he read the headlines. And as soon as he did, the tea spurted all over his trousers. He stared in shock at the news. A minute later he was dressed in a robe and on his way to his fireplace. He had to make sure that he wasn't on the list. He couldn't be on the list.

. . .

"What do you mean you can't show me that?" Hermione spat at the woman sitting at the desk Hermione was leaning forward on.

"I work here too, I have the right to!"

"I'm so sorry Ms. Granger, but I can't show it to you. I'm not even allowed to look at it myself yet. And although we all know that you will be the Head over this department someday, you are not there yet and therefore have no authority to look at classified material." The witch spoke slowly and articulated so much that she looked like she was an actress on stage.

"Alright then," Hermione snapped at her and stormed off to her office. She closed the door and sat down behind her desk and tried to do some work. It was impossible so she rose and paced back and forth. As soon as the clock turned eleven she walked outside and towards Amelia Bones´ office. She knocked three times and waited.

"Come on in," a voice said and Hermione entered.

"Ah, Ms. Granger. I thought I would be seeing you soon," she said and straightened her back.

"Amelia, please..." Hermione started but Amelia raised her hand.

"I know what you want, but I can't tell you that." Pity was in her eyes as she said it. "I have been attacked by owls from wizards and witches that want to know the same thing. But for the record, I voted against it."

"I know you did," Hermione said and slumped backwards into the chair in front of the desk. "How will you proceed?"

"We will contact the concerned this afternoon. And they will be called to a personality test and an interview with us during the week."

"And the pairing?"

"Will be done by us." Amelia answered quickly, as if the shock would be less if she did.

"Why? Why can't they choose by themselves? At least it won't be so forced if they had a small choice,"

"I know, but there is a chance that people will try to cheat. Purebloods might take other purebloods and claim that they are muggleborns. They can change their family tree and the whole point with this project will go to waste."

Hermione sighed at this gloomy news. She could only cross her fingers that she wasn't on the list or that she would get paired with a decent guy.

"The pairing will be done after test and the interview. That way we can at least pair up people who are alike and that will most likely go along, as far as possible at least."

Hermione let go of her breath that she had been holding. That was better news. If she was chosen, she would be matched with an equal.

"And of course, if two people already are together we won't split them up,"

"Can't people lie about that too?" Hermione asked.

"No, since we have a couple-tracker that can sense bonding. When two people form a relationship, a bond is created. Our trackers can sense these bonds and will simply leave them out when the concerned are chosen." Amelia explained.

Hermione nodded. She had read about that in the paper when they explained how the people would be chosen to the "program". She rose from her chair and said:

"I better continue working now,"

Amelia nodded and smiled friendly to Hermione before she walked out of the office.

. . .

Draco paced back and forth in his office on level five at the Ministry. He worked at the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He was the Head for the Trading and most of his days were spent talking to foreign magical governments. Wares they wanted to import and export, prices, safety and quality and quantity. He wasn't good at any language except English but somehow he managed to get by. He thought that by forcing others to speak English he had an advantage and had the control.

But now he felt like he had zero control. He was nervous and couldn't stop pacing. What if he was selected? Who would he get? The stupid Law Department refused to say a single word to him about it.

"Everything will be explained for the concerned," was the only answered he got.

"_Concerned"_ That word showed what they thought about the new law. They wanted distance from the law and refused to think of the victims as persons, but as _"concerned"_. He paced back and forth a little while more before he sat behind his desk. He was going to a floopowder meeting in fifteen minutes with the Egyptian Head of Trading to talk about the import of Sand of Time. The sand was used in Time-Turners and the Egyptians had put a higher price on it. It was Draco's job to make sure that they got a discount on it by offering something of use to them.

He let out a frustrated growl before he rose once more and started to pace. He really didn't want to get forced to marry a muggleborn. Although his family had left those views during the war to side with the Order, it was hard to teach an old hippogryph to behave, so to speak. He had a hard time just letting all his old beliefs go and start hugging the beings he used to hate. But his father had been worse. He had been forced to accept them at work, smile and talk to them. But at home he had cursed and threw things around him in anger. His mother had been a little bit easier. She didn't like them, but she never really despised them either.

She had been on The Dark Lord's side because her husband and her family had been. But in the end, it was she who had saved the family. She had talked sense into Lucius, telling him that the Order would win and You-know-who would fall. She had pointed out the advantages they would have if they changed side. The Dark Lord had looked down on them and mistreated them for years. They wouldn't get the respect they deserved from him.

Reluctantly Lucius had agreed and they had sought out the Order and their leader, Kingsley who had taken over after Dumbledore's death.

The information they had given had been useful and the victory was theirs. The Malfoy's reputation had not been harmed and once again they were respected.

But Lucius had only died a year after the victory in scrofungulus, a very contagious disease. His mother became sick shortly after her husband did, but she survived. She now lived in a smaller house not far from the Manor. She knew that her boy would marry someday soon and she didn't want to be in the way. She had hated when Lucius parents lived with them and watched her every move and told her that she was too young to look after the Manor. When they had died she had secretly done a victory dance and could finally take the role as the Mistress of Malfoy Manor. She refused to be like that to her future daughter-in-law. And now, that woman might be a muggleborn!

The clock in his office told him, literally, that his meeting was about to start. Draco sat down at his chair that stood in front of the fireplace and waited for the man to arrive in it.

He tried to push all thoughts of marriage away and focused on the meeting.

. . .

Hermione apparated outside the flat and then hurried inside the door. She looked around but it was empty. She shrugged it off and walked to the kitchen. It was medium sized apartment with three rooms, one kitchen and two bathrooms. One room was a living room with bookshelves and a muggle TV. Harry had also bought a PlayStation 2 console and a few games. He had taught Ron how to play and explained that it wasn't real people in the TV.

Her kitchen was her favorite place second to her bedroom. It was painted white and had curtains in soft green pastels. She took out her favorite cup, a light purple cup with dark purple dots. She heated water on the stove and took out a teabag with strawberry flavor. While the water was getting warm, she walked to her room to change into her grey sweat pants and a light pink top. She brushed her hair and looked around. Her walls were white here too and her bed sheets were light pink. An old drawer stood in a corner with her clothes. On top of it were her jewelry and a green plant. She had a big comfy chair and a bookshelf behind it where she kept her favorite books. She walked out from her room and back in the kitchen again. The water was heated and she poured it in her cup.

The door opened and Harry came in.

"Oh, Hermione, you're home early," He said and for some reason, blushed.

"Yeah, I was done for the day and was too nervous to stay there," she said and eyed him. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, just outside. For a walk," he said and took off his coat. He came in to the kitchen and took a cup of tea.

"Okay, I'm glad you are home now. The letter can come any minute now, if it's on its way," she added.

"I promise to wait with you," he said. Hermione looked at him carefully.

"Why aren't you nervous at all? You may be on the list too. You're not safe because you are a half-blood."

"Well, you know. I haven't thought about it really..."

"Or are you already seeing someone? So you'll be safe from the tracker," she slyly asked him.

Harry looked very nervous and a bit embarrassed but was saved by a soft knocking on the window. Hermione looked up terrified at the owl outside the window.

"Harry, do you recognize that owl?" she asked and slowly rose from her kitchen chair.

"Will you hit me if I say no?"

Hermione nodded and walked towards the window to let it in. It flew inside, circled around the kitchen, dropped the letter at the table and then flew out again. Hermione looked at the letter that carried her name on it. She closed her eyes and swallowed a few times before she reached out a very shaky hand and grabbed it.

"Please let it be work, please let it be work, let it be work..." she mumbled before she tore up the envelope.

. . .

Draco had just finished the meeting and felt disappointed. This was his worst meeting ever. The Egyptian refused to lower the price in exchange for something else. Draco had tried the best he could but the man seemed determined. Draco finished the meeting by saying he had to talk to his boss and would contact him later on this week. He took his wand and coat and apparated home for the day.

He stepped inside and called out for a house elf.

"Hemmy!" With a loud "pop" Hemmy appeared.

"Yes, sir?"

"Could you please fill the bath for me? I'm feeling tense and need a hot bath to calm down."

"Yes, sir!" Hemmy said and disappeared. Before he walked upstairs he saw several white envelopes laying at the table in the "whiskey-room". A small room with a fireplace, comfy chairs and a cabinet filled with firewhiskey. It was here he calmed down, read a book or enjoyed his friends company.

He picked up the envelopes and walked upstairs and then passed through the doors to his big room. He threw the letter on his big mahogany bed with green sheets. He walked to the big closet and started to undress and wrap a towel around his waist.

When he came back to the bed, he sighed and picked up the letters again and started to read them one by one. There were four letters in total. The first one was an invitation from his old friend Daphne Greengrass to a get-together with some other Slytherin's this evening.

The second letter was work related. He opened the third letter and begun to read.

"Dear Mr. Malfoy... we would like to inform you... chosen to our program... a personality test and interview..." Draco looked up from the letter and shock waved over him. He was chosen. He had to marry a muggleborn witch and live with her.

The Malfoy heir would be a half-blood.

. . .

Hermione sat down on her chair and read the letter over and over again. She couldn't believe it. She had been chosen. She was going to marry someone against her will. It could be anyone. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Harry held her hand.

"It'll be alright 'Mione, They can't force you to be married to him forever. Go to the meeting and see what happens. Maybe things will be solved out perfectly."

"But who is 'him'?" Hermione asked with panic rising inside of her. "What if he's a scum? They don't list the others!" She re-read it again, just in case she missed a list of names.

"Or, he will be a great guy and it won't be so bad. I'm sure you will be able to get out of this after some time."

"You think?" Hermione couldn't help it but sob. Tears ran freely down her cheek now and her eyes got that red edge around them.

"Yeah, they can't be that crazy and force you to a lifetime of unhappiness. But hey, maybe it's a good guy that you'll be falling in love with and maybe stay with him." Harry joked. Hermione laughed.

"Hehe, yeah right," she said and wiped away the tears with a towel she found. "I better get ready. We promised Molly to come over for dinner tonight and I don't want to be late."

Harry nodded and followed after Hermione out from the kitchen.

"Hey, it'll be alright. I promise you." He kissed her on the forehead before he walked to his own room. Hermione nodded to herself. Yes, she would get through this and learn to be stronger on the way. Somehow, she would manage.

. . .

. . .

A/N:

Please review and tell me what you thought about it. I know there are so many stories like this out there. But hopefully you'll find this amusing and worth reading!


	2. Chapter Two

"**Just a Stupid ****Law****"**

A/N: Hey all! First I want to thank everyone who put this story on alert and favorite and also commented. Thanks to wyntter rose for reading and correcting! You are great!

. . .

**Chapter Two**

. . .

Hermione and Harry apparated outside the Burrow and walked the way up towards the big ramshackle house that both of them loved so much. The whole house was lit up and they could see people moving inside it through the windows. They reached the door and knocked once, then the door flew open and Molly Weasley rushed towards them.

"Harry! Hermione!" She pulled them into a hug and squeezed them hard. "You look good, both of you."

"Let them in, Mom." Ron said from the inside of the house. She let them go and smiled widely.

"Of course, come in, come in! I have chicken stew on the stove and it'll be ready soon,"

"Thank you, Molly," Hermione said warmly and couldn't help but smile, despite the bad news she got earlier. Molly had asked them to stop calling them Mr. and Mrs. Weasley since they now were grown-ups and therefore it wasn't necessary. At first it had felt awkward, but soon it felt natural to call her Molly.

They sat down at the table and Harry and Hermione turned towards the family around it. Ginny was there and she hugged them both before she took a seat again. Ron smiled at them, but there was something in his eyes that seemed off.

"Ron, what is it?" Hermione asked and reached out for his hand. The whole kitchen went silent and everyone fixed their eyes on Hermione and Ron. He sighed and his smile disappeared.

"I was chosen." He simply said and sadness crossed his face.

"Oh Ron! You certainly don't deserve this. Oh, it's so unfair," tears started to prickle in her eyes again.

"Hey, I'll manage but there is something you should know. Ginny is also chosen." Hermione gasped and turned to Ginny who nodded sadly.

"Two of you? But that isn't fair, they should only limit to one per family!" Hermione was shocked.

"Apparently not," Ginny said and sighed. "But we're glad no one of you got picked," Hermione froze and looked between Ginny and Ron.

"Actually, I'm on the list too," she finally said.

"Oh my!" Molly said and hurried over to her side and hugged her. "I'm so sorry. Neither do you deserve this! I was so sad when both Ron and Ginny got chosen, but I had hoped it stopped there. But apparently there was no such luck." Molly sobbed and looked over at her son and daughter.

"Mom, calm down. We'll handle it. Right Hermione?" he said and smiled weakly towards her. "And who knows, the letter said that they will look through our interviews and tests and match us depending on those. And maybe we will be matched and Ginny'll get a good one too!" Hermione couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

"Who knows? But honestly, do you really think that we'll be matched? We aren't that alike and also, they know that we are good friends and will avoid matching us."

"Yeah, maybe they will." Ron said. "But we can always cross our fingers. When is your meeting?"

"Thursday, and yours?"

"Friday," he sighed. "Ginny has the same day as me."

"Well, dinner's ready. Let's eat and talk about something else. There is no use to talk about these things right now." Molly said. "Arthur will be home in a while but we can start without him,"

. . .

Blaise sat next to Draco and spoke to the hostess of the evening, Daphne. No one had started to talk about the forced marriage law yet, but he knew that as soon as they did he would have to tell them that he was chosen. Pansy Parkinson sat next to him on the other side and talked to Tracey Davids on the other side.

"Aw, come on Tracey! Tell me who?"

"Sorry, Pansy!" Tracey giggled.

Draco turned away without caring what they talked about but froze when Theodore Nott opened his mouth.

"So... are anyone here on The List with the capital L?" he smirked when everyone froze and eyed each other.

"Well?" he asked again. "If no one will start, I'll go." Everybody now stared at him. He's smile widened of the attention. He was the clever one and had never really belonged to the group of Slytherins. His father had been a Death Eater, but Nott hadn't really cared that much. His mother had been Muggleborn but hadn't told his father until Theo was born. His father had left her immediately and taken baby Theo with him, but he had always looked down on his son for being a Half-blood.

He leaned forward on the table.

"I'm on the List," he said in a theatrical whisper.

"What?" asked Blaise.

"Yep, got my letter today!"

"You sound almost proud of it," said Pansy a bit disgusted.

"Of course I'm not. I'm angry as hell. But there is nothing to do about it, but hope for a good looking one."

Everyone laughed at this and then the silence fell over the room.

"So I guess I am the only one then," Theo stated. "Well, it'll get out sooner or later who's on that list, even if they try to keep it a secret. But it's not too hard to guess once the weddings start." He leaned back and smiled smugly towards everyone in the room.

"I'm on it too," Daphne suddenly said. Everyone gasped and looked at her now. Draco rolled his eyes at their ridiculous behaviour, gasping at everyone who opened their mouth. Daphne only shrugged.

"Like Theo said, you'll find out sooner or later. And since I'm a pure-blood and you're a half-blood who knows, maybe you and I will share a bed in the future," She said and winked towards Theo, whose grin widened.

"Yeah, since you obviously won't end up in mine. I'm a pure-blood too," Draco said and looked right at her.

"You too?" Daphne asked surprised. "Wow, so many of us. But too bad you're a pure-blood. I would have loved to share your bed. Again." Daphne smiled smugly when Pansy shot angry glances at her.

It was well known that Pansy always would hold a grudge towards Daphne for sleeping with Draco before she did. They were good friends, but this was something Pansy had a hard time forgiving. Even if Pansy and Draco weren't a couple anymore.

"Please Pansy. It was a long time ago and you can't hold that against me now. Besides you heard me, I won't be able to touch him again. And neither will you, since you're also a pure-blood and he will now only be sharing a bed with a Half-blood or wor..." she stopped herself and looked around. "Or a muggleborn," she finished. Draco snickered at her little slip.

"So, I wonder who else is on that list. And I wonder who I will be matched with." Theo mused.

"Well, I agree with you. I hope it's someone pretty," Draco said and downed the rest of his wine.

"I wonder if someone from Gryffindor from our year is on the List;" Daphne said. "I mean, it would be so typical if they left them out since they are war-heroes and all that,"

"Yeah, I bet no one from our year is on it. It would be so typical. We are considered the "bad ones". The Golden Ones probably won't have to suffer through this," Draco added.

. . .

Hermione and Harry arrived at their apartment again but carried several plastic containers in their hands filled with food. It was Hermione who had bought them for Molly once, since her old ones were battered and the some of the lids were gone. They were regular Muggle containers but with a nifty spell, Hermione had made sure that Molly could keep at least two cauldrons filled with stew in each of them.

"I felt pretty bad for Ginny. I mean she's only 19 years old. She shouldn't have to be married now!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I know. I feel bad too. And for you and Ron, because honestly: you two saved the world. It's thanks to you that we can even discuss the law. You shouldn't have to put up with this," Harry sighed.

"Well, I guess that doesn't really matter. The tracker is a device that will only choose people who are single and not dating. They won't check the "Saved-the-World" record," Hermione said tiredly.

Harry laughed softly and hugged her.

"I guess not. Just calm down and you'll be able to fix this,"

"I'm just so nervous and hope that Thursday never comes,"

"Thursday won't be so bad. You'll go in there, tell them who you are and then you go out. Just be you and you'll get the perfect match for you. It's after Thursday that you should worry about, because then the results comes and you'll find out who your future beloved husband is,"

"Somehow, that did NOT cheer me up," mumbled Hermione and rolled her eyes. They sat in the living room with some tea. With a little help from their friend Magic they had two fireplaces in their apartment. The one in the kitchen was connected to the Floo Network and was only used for travel. This one on the other hand was closed off from it so they could enjoy the warmth. Of course, no muggles could see chimneys from the fireplaces. That would have looked very odd. Their apartment was on third floor of the building. Several muggles lived in the same building but there were also two wizards who shared an apartment on the second floor. They used to joke with Hermione and invite her over for some tequila and a "good time". Hermione had always joked back that someday she would come down and take their offer for real, but they all knew that it wasn't very likely.

Now, Hermione would love to have a shot of tequila to calm her nerves.

. . .

Draco Malfoy stood outside the door and was ready to head home. Daphne stood in the door, leaning against its frame.

"You know, it would be nice to meet again. Just the two of us I mean, before we get paired up," She said and winked playfully. "You and I have always had chemistry, so why not follow on that until it's too late?"

Draco couldn't really agree with her. They had ended up in bed once, as a one-night thing. Draco had made it clear that he didn't want anything else afterwards. She had agreed to it. But afterwards she just wouldn't let it go. She kept talking that they should do it again and she hinted that she wanted to date him. A couple of weeks after that she stopped talking about it. Next thing he knew, she was deep in love with a guy a year older than her. She always ended up a bit too infatuated with the guys she slept with. And Draco feared that she still did. And he would hate to hurt her feelings and use her for sex, when the risk was that she took it more seriously.

"I think we both know that it can't end well," Draco joked. Daphne pouted but then laughed.

"I guess you're right," she said. She blew a kiss towards him and then walked inside again. Draco turned around and walked to the apparition point. He reached it and then turned on the spot thinking of home.

As soon as he entered the house, Hemmy appeared.

"Mrs. Malfoy is here, sir," she told him. "Hemmy told her to wait in the whiskey-room until master came home,"

Malfoy walked over to the small room next to the stairs and walked inside. A big chair was turned towards the fireplace and its back to the door. But he could see his mothers head above it.

"My dear son, come!" she said. Her hand reached out on the table where two glasses stood. One was already filled with whiskey and the other was empty. She took the filled one and took a sip. Draco walked around the chair and to the cabinet to get his favourite kind. He walked back and sat in the chair on the other side of the table and poured up some of the amber-coloured drink in the empty glass.

"How are you, Mother?" he asked and eyed her carefully.

"I'm fine, dear. No need to worry." She smiled at him and took another sip.

"I'm just worried about you. That disease you got was nothing to play with and the Healer said that you would feel weak for maybe the rest of your life!"

Narcissa shrugged.

"I'm fine. The house elves are taking good care of me. And I take a small walk everyday to regain my strength,"

"That's good to hear," Draco said and leaned back and let out a sigh.

"Is there a problem, dear?" Narcissa asked and put her hand on his arm.

"Yeah, there is. I was at Daphne's for dinner. Guess what the most interesting topic was?"

"Let me guess, that new Marriage Law that was announced today?"

"Exactly," Draco said gloomy.

"So, I guess one of you got chosen," Narcissa said sadly.

"Actually, three of us,"

"Three!" Narcissa almost cried out. "Who?"

"Well, Theo and Daphne were two of them," Draco hesitated.

"Oh my! And the third?" she eyed Draco carefully and then gasped. "You too!"

Draco jumped in his chair and stared at his mother in shock.

"H-how did you know?"

"My dear, I can read you like an open book." She said gently and stroked his cheek with the back of her hand.

"What do you think of this?" Draco asked her mother.

"I'm afraid there isn't much to be done. You will have to marry this girl and try to do the best of it," she sighed heavily.

"Aren't you...angry? Disappointed?" he asked surprised.

"Of course I am! I'm angry because my son will lose the biggest choice of his life! But if you ask me if I'm angry and disappointed that a muggleborn witch will be your wife I must say no. Those times are now past. I admit that I won't feel joyous at the thought, and I will probably have to adjust to her, but I guess we all must move on,"

Draco was silent and thought about what his mother said. Then he shook his head.

"I know that you are right, but it's just wrong! I want to marry a pure-blood witch that can keep our pure-blood line pure!"

His mother smiled weakly.

"I know, but you have to take this as the man you are and show your future wife the respect that she deserves. And besides, you can't be forced to be married to her for the rest of your life or hers for that matter. It's not humane," she said and tried to calm her son.

She knew how he felt, but she also knew that if he expressed those feelings to the public their reputation would be ruined in mere minutes. She hoped that whoever this woman would be, she would at least have some backbone and could stand up for herself. According to Narcissa, the only way to deserve respect was to stand up for yourself and prove that no matter what, you deserved it. And if this woman was a mouse, then Narcissa would gladly trample on her. If she was lucky enough to get her respect then maybe, just maybe, Narcissa would even like her.

. . .

Hermione lie in her bed and was thinking. A month from now she wouldn't lie in her own bed anymore, she would lie in a stranger's house and in a strange bed. Thinking of beds, would she have to share a bed with her husband? And thinking of sharing, would she have to take his last name? And speaking of names, what would his name be? She sighed and turned in her bed.

What if he was an awful person? He could be a lot like her, but only not nice... Or maybe he was nice, and maybe she actually fell in love with him for real? Or maybe not... She turned again. What if she knew who he was? What if she walked up to the man during the wedding and it turned out be an old classmate? Or wait a second, she would meet him before the wedding. Or would she? She turned and now laid on her back staring at the ceiling. All these thoughts... when would she be able to sleep?

She yawned and felt satisfied. Yes, she was tired. She would be able to sleep. But the question is when? She decided to stop thinking of the unknown man and tried to sleep. She took several deep breaths and relaxed. She thought of Ginny and wished she was there. She needed a real girl-talk and Ginny was perfect for those moments. She smiled when she thought about all those times they shared a room during the summer holidays and talked all night. And that Ginny always fell asleep faster than Hermione did and she would slightly snore. But she always denied it when Hermione joked about it in the mornings. She wondered if her future husband snored? Would he snore softly or loud? Wait, she wouldn't think of him! She groaned loudly and turned again. This was going to be a long night...

. . .

. . .

A/N: Please review and tell me what you think of it. I just thought I would give a sneak-peak on the next chapter:

"_The door opened and a man swept inside and walked to the counter to report himself in and get the same parchment Hermione held in her hand. He turned around and eyed the people sitting there. He hadn't seen Hermione before he saw Nott and the woman and walked towards them. But Hermione had both seen and recognized the person. Draco Malfoy."_


	3. Chapter Three

"**Just a Stupid ****Law****"**

A/N: Hey all! Thanks for all the reviews, alerts and all the love I get from you guys! I'm sorry this is a bit late! Had tests last week and this week I have been busy.

Thanks to wyntter rose for reading and correcting my mistakes!

. . .

**Chapter Three**

. . .

Hermione sat in a waiting room and well, waited. She would soon go in and do her interview and personality test. In her hand she held a folded parchment with instructions on how the interview and test would proceed. For the interview she would have to take some veritaserum so she would tell the truth. Otherwise she might have spoke with someone and prepared answers so she would be matched with a friend. For the writing test she was going to use a certain quill that made it impossible to write down lies. Hermione looked around in the waiting room. There were several people in the room. She only recognized two people in the room, a woman and a man that sat next to each other and spoke in low voices. The man had dark hair and was quite big. Not big as in overweight, but just... large. He had broad shoulders and was quite tall. She couldn't decide if he was handsome or not. Hermione was pretty sure his name was T-something Nott. The woman was blonde and absolute gorgeous. Her eyes had a very vivid blue color and her face seemed perfect. Hermione remembered her from school. Her last name began with a G too, since she recalled that they had done their O.W.L.s at the same time.

The door opened and a man swept inside and walked to the counter to report himself in and get the same parchment Hermione held in her hand. He turned around and eyed the people sitting there. He hadn't seen Hermione before he saw Nott and the woman and walked towards them. But Hermione had both seen and recognized the person. Draco Malfoy. She couldn't believe that he had been chosen! She closed her eyes for a second and crossed her fingers.

"_Please, don't let it be him I'm marrying, please!"_ Then she stopped, since of course it wouldn't be him. They weren't the slightest alike!

The door opened and a man came out that had done his test. He was pale and nervous.

"Ms. Hermione Granger, please!" a woman called out. She noticed that several heads turned her way. She held her own head high and walked towards the door. Before she entered the door, she looked back at the waiting witches and wizards and saw Malfoy's piercing grey, eyes stare at her. Even Nott and the woman looked at her, but they seemed surprised while Malfoy only stared at her. The others that looked at her had the same look on their faces that many others did when they recognized her, a little bit of awe and respect. She was after all famous after helping defeat the Darkest Wizard of All Times. But the look on the three former Slytherin's held nothing of that, only surprise and maybe a bit of spite.

"_Maybe they didn't think that the "War Heroes" would have to put up with these sorts of things" _she thought sourly and remembered Harry's word the same day she found out she was chosen: that they saved the world and shouldn't have to do this. She took a deep breath and closed the door behind her.

. . .

Draco entered the door and hurried to the counter. He knew he was late but he hoped that his name hadn't been called yet. The witch behind it only smiled, wrote down his name and gave him a piece of parchment with instructions.

He turned around and searched the row of waiting people. He didn't have to look long before he saw them. Daphne was still there, so he could feel calm. If she was still waiting, then G hadn't been called yet and it would be long before M would be. He walked past several people, a few he recognized but didn't focus much thought on them. Daphne removed her bag from a seat that she had been holding for him.

"Thought you might skip this," she said and winked.

"Nah, I figured they would come after me and drag me here anyway," Draco shrugged.

"Yeah, I bet," Nott mumbled and read the parchment in his hand. "It says here that the whole thing will take 40 minutes and the veritaserum will last for an hour. But they have rooms that you can spend the rest of the twenty minutes if you like,"

Draco began reading his own parchment when the door opened and a pale man walked out of it.

"Ms. Hermione Granger, please!" someone called out. Draco's head moved so fast, that he almost pulled a muscle. And he wasn't the only one who stared at her when she rose from her seat and walked towards the door. Before she walked through it, she looked back at the people sitting there and met his eyes. She must have seen him come in, since she didn't seem surprised at him sitting there. Or maybe she knew that he was chosen. Didn't she work at this Department? She turned her head and walked inside before she shut the door.

"Granger?" Daphne asked and stared at the closed door. "Huh, I would never have guessed her,"

"Me neither," Draco mumbled.

"Wonder who gets her," Nott asked and whistled.

"Crossing your fingers, eh Nott?" Draco teased.

"Not really, but it wouldn't be awful either. I mean, she's smart and she's quite good looking,"

Draco snorted loudly at his friend.

"'Quite good looking?' Compared to what, a sea cow?" Daphne laughed at his joke, but Nott only shook his head.

"Really Draco, you should check her out. She's not bad at all, not anymore,"

"And she is famous," Daphne added. "It would give some status to whoever got her,"

"Listen, it doesn't matter if she won a 'Ms. Britain' contest, I wouldn't want to marry her anyway," Draco said and almost stomped his foot like he used to do when he was a kid.

Daphne shrugged and picked up her wand to fix her nails.

Draco leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. This was only a horrible nightmare, he would soon wake up in his bed and it would be over. A door opened and a voice called out:

"Ms. Daphne Greengrass, please!" Draco turned to Daphne and squeezed her hand.

"It'll be alright," he said. She nodded and rose from her seat. Draco eyed the witch that had come from the door. She was young, pale and cute. He wondered if she was a half-blood or less. He figured they had several interviews going on at the same moment, or else it would take too much time to interview them all.

He and Theo sat quite for a long time, waiting for their turn. They had reached the letter K when Granger walked out from the door. This time she avoided to look at them and walked right to the exit and disappeared. Draco closed his eyes and thought:

"_Please, let it not be her, please!"_ unaware that the witch that had just walked away had thought the same thing about him.

. . .

Hermione was sitting in her favorite chair in the living-room with a book in her hand a cup in her other. It was obvious that she didn't concentrate on her book at all, since she glanced at her watch every 15 seconds and then looked at the door. She was sitting like this for the next fifteen minutes and was beginning to worry for her friend and roommate. She had promised the Weasley's she'd visit them after her interview, but Harry had asked her to wait for him so he could come as well.

She then heard a female voice in her kitchen, calling for her.

"Hermione?"

Hermione smacked the book shut and walked to the fireplace in the kitchen. Ginny's face could be seen in the flames and Hermione bent down to her level.

"Hey Gin! I know I'm late, but Harry hasn't arrived yet and..."

"But he's already here! He arrived here ten minutes ago,"

"Really? He said he would meet me here and we would go together!" Hermione mused. "Did he say where he had been?"  
"No, he didn't,"

"Oh?" Hermione mused. "Alright then, I'm on my way!"

Ginny nodded and pulled back her head from the flames. Hermione took a handful of floopowder and threw. She took a step in the glowing green flames.

"The Burrow!" she said loud and clear and disappeared only to arrive at the Burrow's kitchen.

The whole family was there and each had a cup of tea in their hands. Hermione brushed of the ashes from her clothes and then took a seat. Everyone looked at her curiously and seemed to wait for something.

"Uhm, Hi?"

"Oh, come on Mione! Tell us about the interview!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione smiled weakly.

"There isn't much I can say..." she begun.

"Aw, stop it! What questions did they ask? How was it?" Ginny almost whined.

"No, really I can't say much. We aren't allowed to tell anyone about the questions. It's more accurate to say that we can't tell anyone about them. We had to swear an oath and all. We can only talk about it with those who have done it,"

Ron leaned backwards, closed his eyes and sighed.

"Can you tell us anything at all?" he asked and rubbed his eyes.

"It wasn't so bad. They were nice and seemed understanding." She turned towards Harry.

"Speaking of "telling us anything at all", where were you today? We were supposed to met up in our apartment and go here together."

Harry looked awkward and seemed nervous.

"I was out," he said. Hermione glanced at Ginny and Ron to see their reactions. Ginny looked like she had no idea either of what he really was doing, but Ron looked the other way.

"You know something?" Hermione asked Ron sharply.

"What? No of course not, what should that be?" he laughed nervously and looked away again. Ginny looked surprised at her brother and then at Harry.

"Come on, tell us!" she said and leaned forward.

"Oh, stop it you two. What Harry is doing is his business," Molly reprehended but looked as curious at the others. Hermione dropped the subject but made a mental note to try and get it out of him later on. She turned to Ginny and smiled towards the younger girl.

"Hey Gin, do you want to stay at our apartment overnight?" Ginny smiled back and nodded.

"Yeah, sure!"

From time to time, Ginny would come over to their apartment for some quality time with Hermione or to escape her own house for a night. They had girl talks and ordered muggle pizza that Ginny had come to love. And Hermione knew that Ginny needed someone to talk to now.

"I'll go pack my things," Ginny said and jumped off her seat and ran upstairs. Molly sighed and smiled at Hermione.

"Thank you, dear. She's been acting weird lately and I don't know what to do."

"No problem, Molly. It's fun to have her over,"

Ginny came back, running to the kitchen with her stuff. Five minutes later, they were ready to leave.

. . .

"So Mr. Malfoy..." the brunette witch said and looked up from her papers and greeted him with a nod. Draco returned the nod and took a seat in front of her.

"We will begin with the written test at first. It takes about 15 minutes. The questions are about everyday situations and how you handle them. Remember, it's how you would have done it if you weren't chosen to this program. Any questions?"

"Is there a way to get out of here?" he asked sarcastically. The witch smiled quickly.

"No, Mr. Malfoy." She gave him a purple and green quill and a piece of parchment that was blank. He sat down at the desk she pointed at and waited. Soon words started to write down by an invisible hand and formed a question: _"You and your wife are running out of money, what are you going to do?"_

Draco wrote down: _My family will never run out of money_. New words appeared:

"_Pretend it does" _Draco frowned at the paper and thought for a while. Well, he guessed he would have to sit down with his wife and make a budget. See what he usually bought and what things he could live without and save the money instead. If he wasn't already working he would get a job. If he had a job, he would have to work overtime. He wrote down his answer and a new came.

"_How are the chores around the house divided between you and your wife?"_ Draco wrote down his answer.

"_How will you raise your children?" _Draco thought for a while, he definitely didn't want any children with the muggle-born but answered anyway:

"_My wife and I will both raise the child. A child needs its mother and father. My child will be raised to be strong, independent and confident. But also with a lot of love and caring,"_ He frowned at that last line. He didn't want to write that, but since the quill made him tell the truth it had done it by itself.

Then the quill asked a few more questions, among one of them of what he wanted his wedding to be like. He then returned the paper and sat down at the chair in front of the witch again.

"So Mr. Malfoy... This interview will be about your interests and such things. The reason why we want to talk to you in person and not only let you write a test is to get to know you a little bit better and see how your character is. Also, this meeting will be seen by the administrators," she nodded towards a Pensieve that stood in the corner behind him. "Here is your vial with Veritaserum," she handed him a small bottle and he drank it all.

"Now, what do you like to do at your free time?"

"Play Quidditch, read, swim, go out for dinner, meet up with friends," Draco rambled up several things, and blushed a little when he told her he liked gardening. She didn't seem to notice and just listened to what he said. She asked what his favorite dinner was, his favorite color and favorite book. She listened to his voice and looked at his body language to see how he reacted.

Then the interview was over and he could leave. He walked towards the door that led to the small room in which he could rest until the veritaserum had left his system.

From time to time someone came in and asked him a question to see if he could lie. When he finally could answer "Yes" to the question: _"Are you three inches tall with a snout" _he left the room.

Daphne was still there but Nott was gone. They had decided to wait for each other and then leave together to Draco's mansion to talk this through. He sat next to the blonde and closed his eyes. A small, cool hand entwined with his and Draco turned to his friend. Tears glistened in her eyes and slowly ran across her cheek and down in her lap.

"I'm scared Draco," she whispered so only he could hear. "I'm scared to death and there is no way to get out of this," she couldn't hold back a sob, so the remaining people looked at her curiously. But with only one glance Draco made them look away again. He squeezed her hand and leaned towards her.

"I know, Daphne. It's okay to be."

"No it's not," she shook her head. "I'm a Slytherin, we're are not scared of anything,"

"We are humans first, then Slytherin's," He said gently and lightly brushed her cheek.

She smiled at this and looked at him.

"Do you really believe that?" she joked and laughed softly. Draco smiled and shrugged.

"At least we can pretend,"

They sat there, holding each other's hand and waited.

. . .

Hermione and Ginny sat in their pajamas' on the floor with a huge cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of marshmallows to warm over the fireplace in the living room. A pizza box with one slice left lay on the floor, now cold. Hermione warmed her fifth marshmallow and asked:

"How are you feeling?"

Ginny shrugged and licked off the melted marshmallow from her fingers.

"I'm fine, I guess."

Hermione frowned and looked at her younger friend. Ginny seemed indifferent to the whole thing. Hermione understood Molly's worry.

"Gin, it's okay to be nervous and even scared," she explained.

"I know it is, but I'm fine." She shrugged again and Hermione eyed her carefully. Ginny's eyes seemed so distant. So off, like she wasn't really present. Hermione moved closer to Ginny and wrapped her arms around her. Ginny seemed surprised and patted confused at her shoulder.

"Mione, what is it?"

Hermione shook her head and just held the redhead in her arms. Ginny sat still for a while and waited. She had no idea what Hermione was up to. But it didn't take long time, until she felt tears in her eyes. She tried to fight them back, but it was hard. She took a deep, shaky breath and closed her eyes. Hermione gently stroke her back, waiting for her friend to realize it was okay to cry. And soon Ginny's body was shaking as she cried, burying her face in Hermione's shoulder.

It took almost fifteen minutes until she had calmed down and stopped crying.

"I noticed that you haven't cried for almost three years now. Not since the war," Hermione whispered softly. Ginny took a shaky breath and nodded.

"I-I kinda…cut off my feelings when I feel sad," she said and wiped her tears. "Every time I feel nervous or sad I just…stop." She shook her head. "It was just easier that way,"

"I know, but it's not good for you to keep all those feelings inside of you. You can always talk to me if you want, I'm always going to be here for you," Ginny began to cry again and hugged her. She tried to talk at the same time, but Hermione could only catch a few words like "you're…best…I know…always…hard…" and so on.

They sat in front of the fireplace all night long and talked, cried and laughed. And although it was such a sad night, it was the best night in Ginny's life since the war ended.

. . .

. . .

A/N: A bit shorter than usual but I figured you wanted this chapter as soon as possible. Review and tell me what you thought of it. It doesn't take much time to write a short review!


	4. Chapter Four

"**Just a Stupid ****Law****"**

A/N: First, thanks to everyone who reviewed and put it on Favorite/Alert! I love you guys and you all deserve a big basket of cupcakes!

So, I know the pace has been a little slow. Three chapters and no signs of Dramione! But the reason for this is to show you how these characters are, their relationship with family and friends and where they live. But that will now change!

Thanks to wyntter rose for being my Beta!

. . .

**Chapter Four**

. . .

Hermione had spent her weekend with Ginny. They had gone shopping, got a drink or two at a muggle bar, went to a party that Luna held and talked a lot. They both needed to relax. Hermione knew that Harry and Ron had also been spending time together to let Ron relax. Hermione and Ginny had tried to avoid talking about the interview as much as possible and instead focused on Harry's secret.

At the moment, they sat at the Burrow's kitchen and talked.

"Okay, we are pretty sure it involves a girl!" Ginny said thoughtfully. "Since you told me that he seemed sure that he wasn't chosen to the _'program'_ and he blushed when you asked him about it,"

Hermione nodded eagerly.

"Yes, but the question is: Who is she? Why is he afraid of telling us?"

Ginny shrugged and took a big bite from the cinnamon roll her mother had made the same day.

The sun was shining and it was getting warmer and warmer each day. Hermione and Ginny walked outside to the big pond in the backyard to enjoy the warmth.

"I hope he tells us soon. I mean I am his room-mate. He should trust me," Hermione was a bit hurt that her friend didn't want to tell her about it. After all, she always told him important things.

"What's that?" Ginny pointed up in the sky. Hermione held her hand above her eyes to shadow them and looked up. Small, dark spots in the sky came closer.

"Owls, I think," Ginny answered her own question. A brown and a grey owl landed before them. Their names were written on the envelopes they carried. Ginny and Hermione shared a look before they released the owls from their burden and they flew away. They stared at the letters for a short while and then looked at each again.

"Together?" Hermione asked. Ginny nodded and took a grip at the opening. Hermione did the same and counted down from three. When she said _'One'_ both ripped up the envelopes and took out a parchment.

"_Dear Ms. Granger, we hereby inform you that your future husband has been selected for you. We have matched you with the one whose answers were as close to your own as possible and the two of you have a 93% match."_

"_Dear Ms. Weasley, we hereby inform you that your future husband has been selected for you…We have matched you with the one whose answers were as close to your own as possible and the two of you have an 86% match."_

Within seconds both women ran up towards the house and shouted for Mrs. Weasley.

. . .

Draco had read his letter and sat alone on his bed. He leaned his forehead in his palms and sighed deeply. He was supposed to go to a meeting this Tuesday to meet his future wife, since they didn't tell her name in the letter. He fell backwards and closed his eyes, with the letter still in his hand.

"Wera!" he called out and a house-elf arrived.

"Y-yes sir?" she stuttered as usual.

"Can you please get my cloak and set up the fire, I need to visit my mother,"

"O-of c-course sir," she answered and disappeared. He lied still until the elf came back.

"All d-done sir," she nodded at herself and wrapped a small finger around her white towel she wore with two silver _M'_s that stood for _Malfoy Manor_. Draco walked towards the hall downstairs where the fireplace for floo powder traveling was. He called out his mother's house and stepped into the green flames.

"Draco, my dear," His mother said. She had a tray with freshly baked cookies and coffee. She always seemed to know when she would get a visitor. It didn't matter if you came unannounced, she seemed to know anyway.

"Let's eat outside," she smiled and walked outside with Draco behind her. The garden was small but filled with flowers and bushes. Some already had flowers while others only had small buds. A white fence surrounded her garden and a small path of flat stones led to her small table and chairs. Narcissa called this her own sanctuary and tended the garden herself or with her son's help.

The reason why Draco liked gardening was because he had done it with his mother. They had done it ever since he was a kid and it had been away for Narcissa to bond with her son.

They sat down and Narcissa filled two cups with the black coffee. Draco took a cookie filled with nuts and chocolate. He handed Narcissa the letter he had received earlier. She took it and begun reading.

"Ninety-three percent? That's quite much. That must be a relief for you, that you get someone you matches with so much," she said and took a sip while she continued to read.

"Yes, I thought about that too. Except I would have been more relieved if they said there was no match and I was off the hook,"

Narcissa chuckled while she read.

"Yes…" she mumbled while she read about the meeting and the information he would get at it.

"I hope she's pretty," Draco thought out loud.

Narcissa mumbled something that Draco couldn't hear.

"Well, I guess we'll have to wait until Tuesday then," Narcissa folded the letter and put it on the table and took a cookie instead.

Draco nodded and looked at his mother's garden.

"By the way, I have a gift for you," he said and took out his wand. He pointed it towards a brown spot in her garden and a green bush with buds appeared. He pointed his wand again and slowly the buds started to bloom.

"I know it's not season for this one to bloom yet, but I think you should see what you get," he said. The buds burst and light pink peonies bloomed.

"Oh, Draco! They are lovely! And they are double flowers!" She leaned down and put her nose in the center of it.

"And they smell wonderful!" She rose and walked around the table to embrace her son.

"Thank you, Draco. They are beautiful!" She smiled at her son, who let the flower return to its normal look for the season with small buds.

"I'm glad you like them," he simply said.

. . .

Tuesday seemed to come too fast for Hermione's taste. She sat in her office and waited. Her meeting was scheduled at one thirty and her whole body was shaking. She couldn't help but cry a little. She had a tendency to cry when she was feeling strong emotions. And now she was very upset and nervous. She didn't do any work, she just sat there and stared at the door. When there was only two minutes left she walked to the office where the meeting was held. It was on her floor so she didn't need to walk very far. It didn't feel like butterflies in her stomach, it felt like someone tried to shoot them. She came to the door and took several breaths.

"You can do this Hermione," she told herself before she knocked.

"Come in," a female voice said and a male voice added "Finally". She looked at her watch and saw that she was only half a minute late and rolled her eyes. She took several breaths again when she entered the room. She almost closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see who it was.

The door was now open widely and she froze. There was a woman behind a desk and a man in a chair in front of it. The chair had its back toward the door, but the man had twisted around to see her.

Hermione closed her eyes and then opened them. No, the same man sat there.

"Oh Merlin no…" Hermione mumbled and stared at the blonde sitting there. He seemed speechless and kept staring at her.

"Welcome Ms. Granger. Have a sit. I'm Ms. Verita," the woman said but Hermione barely listened to her.

"No way," she said. "No, freaking way! I am so not marrying you!" she said before she could stop herself.

The man snorted loudly and turned to the woman behind the desk.

"Are you insane? Ninety-three percent match? You are insane!"

"Mr. Malfoy, please stop yelling," the woman said tiredly. "Ms. Granger close the door and have a seat." Hermione slammed the door and glared at the man.

"I think this is the first time we ever agree on something," she told him and then turned to the woman.

"Ninety-three percent! Are you insane!" she yelled.

"See, there you have one thing in common," the witch joked and smiled. The pair didn't smile back.

"There must be some mistake here," Draco began and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You think?" she said sarcastically. Draco glared at her.

"There is no way we match ninety-three percent, you must have us mixed us up or something!" he tried. The witch shook her head.

"There is no mistake," she said. "Now please calm down and I will explain how this will work," Hermione sat down in the empty chair next to Draco. She folded her arms and could feel tears in her eyes. But now it was out of anger.

"So here's the deal," the witch began. "You will be married for eighteen months, and then you are allowed to divorce if you want to. During these months you must do your best to get the marriage to work." She tapped her wand on two parchments and handed them one each.

"Here you have a few things that you must do during these months. This way you'll get to know each other better and also show the world what a happy couple you are," This time, both Draco and Hermione snorted and glared at each other before turning their heads towards the woman again.

"As I'm sure you both know, the bond that is made during the wedding is not to be violated,"

Hermione nodded and glanced at Draco and saw that he nodded once.

"This means no infidelity," Both couple jerked at her harsh tone.

"Ms. Verita," Hermione began. "No matter who I'm married too, I would never, ever cheat on my husband,"

"A Malfoy never sinks that low," Draco hissed at the accusation.

Ms. Verita smiled at them and looked down at her papers.

"We know. Both of you have answered _'No´_ at the question if you would cheat on your partner even if you did not like him or her. But let's continue,"

. . .

Draco walked out from the room first and Hermione hurried to get out of there as well. To her dismay Draco was waiting for her outside. She closed her door and turned towards him with a sigh and glared at him like this was his fault.

"I'm not very happy about this either," Draco snapped and glared back at her. They stood like that and glared at each other like small children. Hermione gave up first, closed her eyes and shook her head. A small laugh escaped her lips.

"What's so funny?" Draco muttered.

"I thought I was going to get rid of you once school was over. But here I am, and now I have to live with you for eighteen months," She leaned towards the wall. "The universe must hate me or something,"

"Make that two of us," he said. He turned around and walked away. "See you down the aisle!" he shouted before he disappeared.

"I'll be the one in white," Hermione mumbled and walked away. She was majorly pissed and decided to go home early.

. . .

The sun was setting when Draco sat down with his friends. Everyone had been to the meeting by now and they discussed their future partners.

"Does anyone know who the guy is? He's the same age as us but I can't remember him from school," Daphne wrinkled her forehead in concentration.

"How does he look like?" Nott asked. Daphne reached her purse and got a picture from it.

"His name is Dean Thomas," she said. "And he's a Gryffindor," She wrinkled her nose this time and shook her head in disapproval.

"I remember him," Nott said. "In fact, my future wife is his ex,"

"Really? Who's that and how come that you remember the Gryffindor's relationships?" Draco asked and tried to remember what girl he had seen with the boy during their school years.

"Because his ex was one of the hottest girls in her year and it wasn't hard to miss who she was dating," Nott said. "And now, I'm going to spend eighteen months with her,"

"Tell us her name already," Daphne sighed.

"Ginny Weasley," Theo simply said and smiled at the shock on their faces.

"No way! Potter's ex?" Draco laughed at his friend.

"Yeah, who did you get?" Theo asked and his smile widened when he saw Draco's face.

"Well the only good thing about her is that we get to spend time together," he said.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah… my _"wife"_ is a good friend of yours: Hermione Granger,"

Everyone stared at him and said nothing.

"B-but didn't you say you had a ninety-three percent match?" Daphne exclaimed.

"Yep," Draco said miserable.

"But how can that be Granger!"

Theo didn't say much, he seemed to think instead.

"Hmm, well she doesn't look that bad I guess," was the only thing he said.

"So we all got Gryffindor's?" Daphne mused, "Conspiracy?"

"You would almost think so," Draco muttered.

"Well, as I said at the interview, she is famous and you'll get a lot of status now,"

"And as I said at the interview, I don't care!"

They went silent for a while.

"Can we at least promise each other one thing?" Daphne suddenly asked and reached out for their hands. "Let's stay together! We'll see each other often and make these months bearable,"

Both Draco and Theodore nodded and gently squeezed her hands.

. . .

At the same time, but far away from the Malfoy Mansion, sat Hermione, Ginny, Harry and the Weasley family once again at the Burrow. Everyone was in shock over Hermione and Ginny's future husbands.

"Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott…" Harry couldn't believe this. "Not sure about this Nott guy, as I recall he was kinda in the background all the time, but Draco Malfoy? They must be insane," He shook his head.

Hermione felt almost numb. She was afraid and wanted to push everything aside, just like Ginny had done after the war. But she knew she had to face this.

"So Ron," she turned to her friend. "Who's that Mandy Brocklehurst you got?"

Ron blushed a little.

"Well, she went to Hogwarts the same year we were there," he begun and then blushed some more.

"What?" Hermione teased, "What house was she in?"

"Ravenclaw," he mumbled.

Ginny laughed so hard that she cried.

"Ravenclaw? And you matched with her?" Ron looked embarrassed and angry at the same time.

"It's not funny, she was really nice. But what about you? You matched with Nott!" This made Ginny shut up.

"Sorry brother. You're right, I have no reason to laugh at you,"

The rest of the evening was spent talking about other things. But everyone knew that soon everyone would be married and they would be stuck with their spouse for eighteen months before things could get back to normal.

But what no one knew was that this program was going to change everyone involved in the most radical ways. Nothing was going to be the same, ever again.

. . .

. . .

A/N: Please review! I hope you liked it! The pairings for this story hasn't been fully revealed. And I promise you that the couples that have been chosen now in the 'program', may not stay like that when this story ends…


	5. Chapter Five

"**Just a Stupid Law"**

A/N: So much to do but so little time. Sorry for the very late update, but they are kinda irregular since I have schoolwork and a lot of other things to do. But here it finally is! Thanks again to wyntter rose for being my Beta and helping me!

. . .

**Chapter Five**

. . .

Hermione stood in her white dress in a small room and hyperventilated. She paced back and forth, squeezing her beautiful bouquet and mumbled:

"You can do this, you can do this," to herself. She peered out through the window and looked at the people sitting there. The wedding was held at the Malfoy Manor. She thought back to this morning when she had first arrived.

She would move in to the Malfoy Manor the same day the wedding was. She had been packing for two days and cried the whole time. She and Harry had decided to keep her room like it was, so she had a place to come if things went badly: a safe house, a sanctuary. He had helped her pack her clothes and her things she wanted to take with her. She had spent the evening with Harry, Ron and Ginny.

Ron's wedding had already been and it had been very awkward but Mandy seemed like a sweet girl and Hermione thought that there was a chance they would actually fall in love for real. She looked like the average girl with dark, long hair that was completely straight and dark blue eyes that sat a little too far away from each other. She was shy and seemed a bit plain, but Hermione didn't judge anyone. She knew that she was considered to be a bookworm and know-it-all by everyone, even by her closest friends. It had been a simple wedding, held at the Burrow. Her dad had been killed during the war, but her mother seemed happy that her daughter got married to a Hero. Hermione smiled at the memory of Mrs. Weasley's first encounter with Mrs. Brocklehurst. She didn't like her at first mainly because Ron was marrying her daughter, even if it wasn't Mrs. Brocklehurst's fault. But as soon as Mandy's mother complimented the food and asked for the recipes and gave a few of her own tricks, the two women got along very well.

Ginny's wedding wasn't scheduled until next week and Nott had contacted her to invite her over to get to know each other a little bit more. Ginny had considered turning it down, but agreed to meet him over some coffee. She had come back thoughtful and told Hermione that he wasn't that bad really. But she didn't want to tell her brother that.

Hermione began thinking about her own day. She had arrived at eight this morning to the Malfoy Manor and was greeted by a sullen Malfoy.

"Welcome to you new home," he had said, a little bit sarcastic. Hermione nodded and with magic let her bags float in the air. Draco eyed at it and then shouted a name.

"Hemmy!" A house elf appeared and bowed. Hermione wrinkled her nose at first but realized that this House elf's clothes didn't look like what Dobby had been wearing at all. Harry had described Dobby's clothes when he worked for the Malfoy's and Hermione had hated Draco even more. But this elf was dressed in what looked like a clean, white towel like a toga. The letters MM were written in green at the chest and the elf looked clean.

"Please, take Ms. Granger's luggage and carry it to her room," Hemmy nodded and before Hermione could protest, the elf had snapped her fingers and disappeared with her things.

"The house elves here aren't badly treated. They don't get any salary, but they don't want any. I always make sure they have everything they want and yes, I do know the name of every elf working here," with that he had turned around and walked inside. Hermione had followed after and gotten a tour around the house. Her bedroom was across from his and she had her own bathroom. Draco explained that if she got lost, she could call for an elf and they would help her. He also explained that she could apparate inside the house to the different rooms, but not outside the lot. She had to walk outside the gates to apparate.

Once the tour was over, the preparations for the wedding began. Someone did her hair, and another one did her make-up. Several of her girlfriends had shown up: Ginny, Luna, Padma and Parvati, Lavender and she had also invited Mandy. Everyone was now outside and chatting with each other but only hours ago, they had helped her with her things. The dress was new; a big, white and fluffy thing with no straps. Small pearls and rhinestones were sown around her chest and she loved how it sparkled in the sun. The tiara was both old, but went under the category borrowed. It was the same one Fleur had used on her wedding. It was now Mrs. Weasley's, since old aunt Muriel had passed away. The beautiful hairpins in her hair were old, they had been her grandmother's. Something blue was the garter around her thigh that Ginny had gotten her, white lace with blue satin bow around it, simple but beautiful. There was a soft knock on the door. Hermione jumped and a hissing sound came out instead of the "come in" she meant. She cleared her throat and tried again. The door opened and Malfoy walked inside. To her surprised, he looked… handsome. He was wearing a black tailcoat and matching trousers. His shirt underneath was white and he was pulling his wristbands nervously. He wore black shoes and a white handkerchief was sticking out from his breast pocket.

He looked up from his wristbands and his eyes nearly popped out from their sockets. She couldn't help but smile smugly for herself. She still had the girl's faces when they saw her fresh in her memory. Tears in their eyes and their jaws open like goldfishes. Ginny mumbled things about being unworthy to be in her presence and they had all laughed. But Hermione had felt so beautiful and some part of her had wondered what Malfoy would think about her. Not that she cared what _he_ thought about her, but the female in her wanted to look good for _any_ male. And it would feel a bit, well, victorious if Malfoy thought she was beautiful. He had all these years been making fun of her personality and her looks. And she wanted this little proof that she looked good, at least today. And by the look of him, she wasn't disappointed. He literally stared at her, taking her outfit in.

"You…eh…look decent," was all he said. Hermione shrugged, thinking that his looks said more than words. She pretended to look him critically and shrugged again.

"You'll do,"

Draco narrowed his eyes before he relaxed, deciding that he didn't care.

"Are you ready?"

Hermione nodded nervously. "Let's get this over with so the eighteen months can pass as fast as possible."

Draco chuckled and Hermione was surprised to hear him do that. Normally he smirked or gloated. But this was a genuine laugh. He seemed to notice her surprise and stopped. He held his arm out so she could wrap her own around it and go outside.

The sunshine was bright and the birds sang loud. It was a beautiful day and Hermione thought that this was the way it was supposed to be on your wedding day, except you should be happy and in love. She had tried to keep her tears away as good as possible, to keep up the façade. But Ginny knew about the handkerchief in her bra, just in case.

The music began, a piece Hermione had chosen that she had always loved. It was very fitting at a wedding, but not theirs. Yiruma's _Love Me_ with its soft notes drifted though the air and everyone turned to look at the couple as they walked. She heard small gasps of surprised when they saw them and several of them reached for something to dry their eyes with. Hermione smiled shyly and seemed happy. Inside she was screaming to run the other way and she could almost feel Malfoy thinking the exact same thing. When they reached the front rows, Hermione saw Narcissa Malfoy. She hadn't met her before and she couldn't understand the look on her face. It looked like a challenge. Even though Hermione didn't want to care, she understood that in order to gain the respect she deserved she had to accept the challenge and win. She straightened her back even more and looked directly into her eyes. Narcissa looked a little bit surprised, but smiled faintly and nodded once.

Then they reached the end and the ceremony began. The wizard talked about love that reached through time and embraced everyone and many other fancy words that normally Hermione would have agreed with. Not today though. But she smiled and nodded and played pretend. It seemed to take forever, until the wizard was done.

"You may now kiss the bride!" he exclaimed. Everyone leaned forward and stared closely at the couple. Even if everyone pretended this was a normal wedding, they all knew the truth. Hermione glanced at the audience and saw Amelia Bones in the middle of them. A representative from the program was supposed to watch the wedding and make sure everything goes as planned and no one does a "Runaway Bride". Amelia had offered to attend Hermione's. Partly because she felt responsible for Hermione's unhappiness but also since they considered each other friends. She looked sad for her, but nodded at her encouragingly. Hermione turned back to her "husband". He looked uncomfortable and like he wanted to say something mean to her. But he seemed to realize that it wasn't a good idea to make fuzz about it now. He sighed in defeat and stepped closer to her. Hermione shivered and her eyes betrayed her that she was even more terrified. Draco smirked at this, and leaned forward.

The Kiss was soft, gentle. He simply pressed his lips against hers and held his hands around her waist. She had automatically put her hands around his neck. It only lasted a few seconds, but the crowd was satisfied. The cheered and relieved, Draco and Hermione let go of each other.

"You better have enjoyed that, Granger. There won't be any more of those," Draco mocked under his breath. Hermione smiled and waved to the audience.

"Is that a promise?" she said and didn't even bother to correct him on the 'Granger' part. She wasn't Hermione Granger anymore. She was now Mrs. Hermione Malfoy. She shivered of disgust at the thought of the name. But Malfoy misunderstood.

"Hey, I'm probably the best kisser you ever got the chance to kiss," Hermione smirked.

"Wow Malfoy, didn't know you kept track of everyone I have kissed to draw that conclusion. It's sweet of you, but I'm not _really_ into you. It's all a pretence you know, at least for me,"

Malfoy didn't answer her, only gritted his teeth. Everyone stood up and the chairs moved to the side as a huge floor spread out on the grass and tables popped up everywhere and the chairs magically moved to spread out among the tables. Everyone surrounded them and gave them their luck and best wishes. Ron hugged her tightly and whispered: "You look amazing!" and blushed. Hermione felt awkward for a bit. They way he looked at her, the way he had said those words, made her confirm her suspicions she had had for a long time: Ron wasn't truly over her and had never been. Hermione looked away to turn to Harry. He hugged her for a long time and there were tears in his eyes. But if it was because he thought she was beautiful or because he was sad for her sake, she couldn't tell. Maybe it was both.

Hermione sat next to Draco with Harry and Ginny (Ron sat with Mandy at a table next to theirs) and with two of Draco's friends Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass, the same ones she saw at the day of the interview. Hermione talked to Harry and Ginny and Draco to Theo and Daphne, but she noticed how Theo and Ginny glanced at each other from time to time.

The dinner was delicious with several options. Just like the Yule Ball, there were menus at each place. Hermione picked hers up and read out loud what she wanted. Once again, Hermione thought that if this was a normal wedding, and not a forced one with her enemy, this would be the most successful wedding.

When the dinner was coming to an end, the tables moved to the sides and were filled with refreshments. Music started and Draco rose from his chair holding out a hand. With as much effort as he could manage he said:

"May I, Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione blushed at his choice of words and took his hand. They walked to the middle of the floor and it was then it hit her.

'_I hate him. I'm married to the man I hate,'_ During the wedding she had cut off all of her feelings to pretend that everything was fine, like they were instructed too, but now it hit her with such a force that she flinched when he placed his hand on her waist. He glared at her, his own hate for her shone in his eyes before he closed them. When he opened them, they were cold but he had closed off the hate for now.

'_How am I supposed to live with this man for one and a half year?'_ The pair began dancing and once again, the feeling of competition washed over her again. She straightened her back and looked boldly in his eyes, showing that she wasn't afraid of his hate. Malfoy seemed to notice this, smirked a little and did the same. As he swirled her on the floor, the dance intensified as they both tried to defeat the other with their will and glares. Hermione and Draco passed Ron who watched the couple and she could hear him swear. But she had no time to think about this since the music faded away and the dance ended. The music began again and now several couples joined them on the floor. Hermione jerked away from Draco's grip and ran off. She didn't want to stay near him any longer. She walked away towards the lake in the park. Her dress swept over the grass and the sun was setting. It was truly a beautiful spring night. She stopped and closed her eyes, inhaling nature's scent and tried to hold back her tears.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," she whispered and stared at the weak crescent moon in the sky that turned brighter and brighter while the sun was disappearing behind the trees.

"My wedding day should be happy, and with a man that I love. I can't stand this!" she sobbed while she tried to keep her feelings in check.

"Hermione?" someone asked behind her. She turned around and saw Ginny coming closer. "How are you feeling?" As soon as she reached her, Hermione burst into tears and fell into her friend's arms for comfort. She cried and cried and couldn't stop. Her makeup wouldn't be ruined since it was made with magic, but her eyes would get all red and bloated. Both fell to the ground and sat in the grass. Ginny held her and whispered words of comfort to her.

"I hate him, I hate him!" Hermione cried. "Why me? I don't want any of this!"

"I know," Ginny told her and rocked her fourth and back. "You'll get through this, I swear you will,"

. . .

Draco sat alone in another part of the park, unknowing of what happened at the other side, and was drinking his fourth fire-whiskey when his mother came with Daphne. His mother looked annoyed at the younger girl, but she didn't care.

"Draco, how are you feeling?" the young blonde asked.

"Fine," he mumbled and was going to sweep down his drink when his mother caught it.

"No more drinking, it won't look good for the public," she said and poured it out on the grass. Draco groaned but didn't say anything.

"I can't stand her," he said instead. "I despise her and just the thought of living with her for eighteen months makes me want to…"

"Draco," his mother warned him, knowing what he might say.

"I'm just saying," he exclaimed and glared angrily at his mother. "Can you honestly say that this is what you had hoped for?"

Daphne's eyes were glistening with tears as she took his hands.

"Oh Draco, of course not! What she meant was that you should keep that to yourself. There can be ears anywhere," Draco sighed in defeat and leaned his forehead in his palms.

"What should I do?" he asked desperately.

"You are going to make the best of it. No one has forced you to love this girl and you don't need to. Do the things required of you and live your life as it used to be. She can do the same and both of you will get through this. And before you know it, these months will pass and you'll be free again." Draco watched his mother carefully and nodded slowly.

"I can do that," he said. Daphne smiled and nodded. "Of course you can!"

His mother then turned thoughtful and almost seemed to smile to herself.

"What are you thinking of?" he asked. Narcissa shook her head and now she was clearly smiling.

"During the ceremony I was watching her closely. She has backbone and a lot of will. She isn't easily persuaded and I think you'll have quite the match to get what you want from time to time if she is opposite you. And I think you know it too,"

Draco snorted "What makes you think that?"

"If you were able to see the way the two of you danced you would have said the same thing," she said and turned around and walked back.

"What does she mean?" Draco asked Daphne who immediately blushed.

"Ehm… well, the two of you kinda looked… intense…" she wavered and looked as if she wanted to follow after Narcissa.

"What do _you_ mean?" he asked and stared at her, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"Well, you looked kinda…passionate, like you were in a battle. But not in the way that you would normally fight,"

"You don't make any sense!" Draco growled, now pissed off.

"It looked like you were ready to jump on each other and pull your clothes off to show who's boss or something," she burst out and then blushed again.

"Are you crazy!" he shouted at her and jumped up from the bench. "I would never want to see her naked or want to jump right on her! She's not even attractive!"

"I didn't mean that you wanted to! I was only saying that if we all didn't know that you hated each other, we would have thought you were…passionate," she finished lamely. Draco shook his head in walked away.

"Both you and my mother are crazy. I hate her and all I wanted to prove on the dance floor was that I am stronger than her!"

"She looked just as strong as you," Theo said as he came walking towards them. "Honestly, if it wasn't such a weird situation it would have been quite the turn on. I think your mother is right, she has a lot of will and backbone, just like you," he shrugged.

"Are you spying on us?" Draco asked angrily. Theo shrugged again.

"Not really, I was just on my way when I heard what your mother said to you before she walked away. If you had been more attentive then you would have seen me,"

Draco didn't find any words for this and simply walked away. He was going to take his mother's advice and keep his head calm and get this over with. But no way was he going to believe what they had just said. There was no passion between them, and there never would be.

. . .

. . .

A/N: So tell me what you thought about their wedding! Review and make me very happy!


	6. Chapter Six

"**Just a Stupid ****Law****"**

A/N: Wow, thank you so much for all the kind reviews and favorites/alerts! I love them so much and you all deserve a huge hug! But I want to apologize for the late updates. I understand that people grow tired of a story that never seems to update. But right now, my life is so busy! I have tests almost every week and a lot on my mind right now and I have been very ill with a high fever, sore throat and I'll spare you the nasty details. So I haven't been very well. So to compensate the absence of chapters, I have written a longer chapter!

I also got a Beta reader, wyntter rose, and she has read my story and I have re-published the chapters now! Thank you so much!

. . .

**Chapter Six**

. . .

The wedding had lasted until three in the morning before everyone went home. In theory, it was a successful wedding that everyone would talk about for a very long time. After the wedding had ended, Hermione and Draco walked upstairs together and both had slammed their doors without a word to each other. Hermione now stood in her new room. She had remade it just before the wedding. The walls were white except for the one were the bed stood against and that was across from the door she just came in through. It was in a light purple color with darker swirls in it. Her bed was huge and its sheets matched the wall behind it. To her left were two more doors, one led to her bathroom and one to her closet. It was filled with clothes she had never seen before among her old ones. On the same wall as the entrance was a fireplace with two chairs and a table and to the wall at her right was a desk and a small bookshelf with her personal books. She sighed and walked in her closet to pick out something to sleep in. She found her old things but she decided to look through what new things she had gotten. Normally, she wouldn't accept anything from Malfoy but she thought she would maybe skip that rule for now. After all, her old nightgowns and PJ's were kinda worn out since she hadn't gotten time to buy new ones. There were a few skimpy, translucent negligees but she found something she liked a lot. It was made out of cotton and was pure white. It had thicker straps and the backpiece looked like a tank top and it ended mid-thigh. She tried it on and decided to go for it. She then walked to her bathroom to take a quick shower before bed.

She curled up in her bed and right before she fell asleep she thought: _'I'm not a Granger anymore…"_

. . .

It was early morning when Draco woke up. He had the typical headache that reminded him of all the drinks he had yesterday. He groaned and rose from his bed to get a shower. The hot water hit the back of his head and flushed down his body and he closed his eyes. He did _not_ want to go downstairs. Granger might be there and he couldn't stand to see her. But sooner or later, he had to go downstairs. It was his house after all and he wouldn't hide in his room. He dressed quickly and walked to the dining area. They had two dining areas, one smaller that was close to the kitchen that he used when he was alone or with his mother. The bigger was used for parties or big get-together's. He could smell bacon and egg and felt his stomach rumble a bit. Granger was sitting at the table, reading a paper and eating some cereal. She briefly looked up when he entered but looked down again.

"Good morning to you too, Granger," Draco said sarcastically. Hermione frowned and looked up again.

"First of all, it's the morning after the party that ruined my life so no; it's not a good morning. Second, my name is not Granger anymore, remember?" She looked back down at her paper again, still frowning. Draco rolled his eyes.

"I know that, but I refuse to call you _Malfoy_," he said and smirked when she jerked at her new name.

"Well, I guess Granger's fine then," she mumbled and sipped her tea. Draco rolled his eyes again and took a seat across from hers. He reached for the bread and butter and called for a house elf.

"Hemmy, sir!" the house elf announced herself. "What do you wish for, sir?"

"I could use some Miracle Potion right now," he said and gently rubbed his temple. Hemmy suppressed a smile, nodded and disappeared.

"Miracle Potion?" Hermione asked and leaned backwards in her chair with her cup.

"Hangover," Draco murmured. Hermione couldn't help but smile and shake her head. She rarely had hangovers, mostly because she didn't drink that much. After a night out, she would usually wake up and feel like she had worked out or something, since her muscles felt weak. But that would pass over a day. But the headache and sickness was something she had been spared of, gratefully.

"I have been thinking of how to make this 'marriage' work," Draco begun. Hermione rose an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"I suggest that we leave each other alone. We do the things required of us, but nothing more. We can't see other people, sadly, but I think we can work around that somehow,"

Hermione nodded.

"I had been thinking the same thing," she said and leaned forward on the table to reach for an orange. "I believe that is the only way for us to manage at all. Have you read the note we got at the meeting yet?"

"No, I haven't," he simply said. Hermione didn't answer, she just peeled her orange and removed the white stuff around it.

"Well, aren't you going to say what the note said?" asked Draco very annoyed.

Hermione shrugged and popped a piece in her mouth and chew it slowly. She swallowed it and took up a napkin and gently dabbed her lips with it.

"I guess I can do that," she said and took another piece of orange. Draco realized what she was doing, trying to mess with him, so he simply took her oranges away from her fingers which was already picking up a third piece.

"Hey, that's mine!" she said and reached for it. Draco moved his hand away, just out of her reach.

"And you will get it back, once you tell me what the note said," he sounded calm, but inside he was doing a small victory dance. A very small one.

Hermione frowned again.

'_She seems to do that a lot,'_ he thought amused. He guessed she didn't have a very good poker face.

"Very well, we will get instructions from time to time with things we are going to do. They don't send all the ideas out immediately, since they don't want us to do them at the same time and then spend the rest of the year avoiding each other. The note also said that we had to spend "home time" together,"

"Home time? What does that mean?" he asked.

"Well, it's not scheduled or we don't get any notes about it, but it is time they want us to spend. Not every night or day of course, but perhaps a few times a week. Also, that we should invite our friends over and spend time with each other's friends."

"What!" Draco exclaimed. "I have to spend more time with you? I thought it only was the scheduled ones!"

Hemmy appeared at that moment with his "Miracle Potion" and the disappeared terrified from Draco's outburst.

"You scared her," Hermione accused him and looked at the spot Hemmy had vanished. Draco took the entire potion at once and shook his head in disgust.

"I'll talk to her," he said and walked away. Hermione sighed. Although they had decided that they wouldn't spend that much time together, it looked like they would anyway.

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she saw her orange across from her and she reached out to take it. She sighed at her situation and wished that everything just would go back to normal. She suddenly wished that Dumbledore was still alive. He would have stopped all this. She remembered that day when he died as if it was yesterday. Ginny was cornered by three Death Eaters and tried to take them all. But they overpowered her and managed to take her wand. Helpless, she stood there and wanted to call out for Harry, but knew she couldn't distract him. His mission to get to Voldemort was more important. All the Horcruxes were destroyed and Voldemort was now protected by a giant sphere. By killing the ones helping to give it power, Voldemort would be without protection and Harry could kill him off. But Harry had seen Ginny already and ran to help her. With his back towards the Death Eaters, Bellatrix saw her chance and sent a curse after him. Harry saw it too late to jump away, but suddenly Dumbledore stood in front of him and took the curse instead.

"Save them," were his last words before he got hit and fell to the ground.

Hermione jumped in her chair when she a soft knock could be heard on the window. She rose to let the small owl in with a letter address to Mrs. Hermione Malfoy. It was a neat handwriting she didn't recognize. She fed the owl some bread and opened the letter.

_Dear Mrs. Hermione Malfoy,_

_I would like to invite you for some tea and a chance to get to know each other. You are welcome to my house at three. My son can take you there, but it will only be you and I._

_Sincerely, Narcissa Malfoy_

Hermione's palms got all wet and she took several deep breaths. How was she going to handle this? She had only met Narcissa a few times before but she hadn't talked to her, not even at the wedding.

Draco came back and saw the letter in her hand. He opened his mouth to ask who it was from, but then realized that he didn't want to seem interested.

"It's from your mother," Hermione said shortly.

"You opened my mail?" Draco said angrily and was about to rip the letter from her hands.

"Hey! I don't read your letters! It was addressed to me. You mother invited me over for some coffee," Hermione handed him the letter, she didn't see any harm in him reading it. Draco read it quickly and smirked.

"_She'll eat her alive,"_ he thought and almost chuckled out loud. "I'll take you there," was the only thing he said and then walked away again.

Hermione walked to her room to see for more fitting clothes. She didn't care what Narcissa really thought about her, but she didn't want to make this even more awful than it really was. She would go there and be nice and civilized and if Narcissa still treated her like dirt, well then it wasn't Hermione's fault.

. . .

It was three o'clock and Hermione stood outside Narcissa beautiful countryside house. A fence surrounded it and a wooden sign told her that she was at Lavender Cottage. It was small and cozy with lavender colored bricks and it was filled with flowers. Hermione opened the small gate and entered the garden. She was mesmerized by it all and she stopped just to take it all in. A short path of stones led to the door that looked welcoming. Next to her was a small fountain made out of stones to look natural. The garden followed the house and she guessed that the backyard looked even more beautiful than the front. She would have never guessed that Narcissa Malfoy lived like this.

At that moment, the door opened and Narcissa herself walked outside.

"Hello there, I was wondering where my guest was," Hermione had a hard time figuring the woman out. She didn't sound very welcoming, but not cold either. More like she didn't have an opinion about her yet. Like Hermione already had figured out, this meeting was the turning point. Depending upon how she handled this, her life would either be a lot easier or it would become unbearable.

She walked up the small stairs and entered the house.

"It's a lovely house you live in, Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione said and she really meant it. The inside was cozy with warm colors and she knew that she wanted to live like this.

"Thank you," Narcissa said and caressed a wooden chair as she passed it.

"It's my sanctuary and retreat. I bought it when my Lucius was still alive and I had it restored and fixed up. We had plans to move her when Draco got married. But when he died I decided to move early. The Mansion has too many memories now but this house is fresh," Narcissa smiled sadly and opened a new door to the backyard.

"Won't you be reminded of the losses here? The time you would have spent here with him?" Hermione didn't ask this to be mean, she was only curious, and Narcissa didn't take it as an insult.

"I guess I could have seen it like that. But you see, I chose not to. Instead I love this place for its beauty and atmosphere, the tranquility. Lucius memory doesn't haunt me here, since he was never here with me,"

"That's smart," Hermione said and nodded, "It's really beautiful here and it would such a waste to just leave it behind,"

"My thoughts exactly," Narcissa said, smiling as she sat down and motioned for Hermione to take a seat. The garden was even more beautiful with so many colors and smells that it was almost overwhelming. It was early summer now and several flowers bloomed.

Narcissa reached for a teapot and filled two cups with the steaming hot liquid.

"Milk? Sugar?" she asked and held a small jug.

"Only milk thank you," Hermione answered politely with a nod.

"So, Hermione… it was a beautiful wedding yesterday!"

Hermione nodded again. "Indeed it was," was the only thing she could say.

"To bad it was all just pretense," Narcissa shrugged and sipped her tea. "It felt like a waste. No offense, my point is that it was a beautiful wedding and it should have been the happiest day of both of your lives. Instead, all that beauty was wasted on a forced marriage,"

Hermione nodded, but realized this was the third time she did that and stopped.

"I fully agree with you. I was thinking the same during the wedding,"

Narcissa smiled vaguely and sipped again.

"Here, take a cookie," she suddenly said and motioned for the plate. Hermione took one, mostly to be polite but when she took a bite she couldn't help but give a sound of delight.

"These are absolutely fantastic," Hermione said.

"Thank you! I made them myself. They are Draco's favorite cookies," she said fondly. "I'll be happy to give you the recipe,"

"Oh, thank you very much!" Hermione smiled at her mother-in-law and remembered her own mother. Both of her parents had died two years ago when she was nineteen. It was car accident. The driver that had collided with them had gotten panicked and drove away. They never found the person. Narcissa noticed that something was wrong and eyed her carefully. Hermione smiled and shook her head a little.

"Sorry, I was just reminded of something," she said and took another bite.

"Oh?" Narcissa leaned back in her chair and looked curious. Hermione didn't know what to say. She didn't want to talk about her parents with this woman. She had to remind herself that Narcissa had been a Death Eater, or at least married to one. She didn't care for muggles. But she looked attentively at Hermione and waited for her explanation. Hermione thought it was rude to just assume that she wanted to talk about it.

"Well, my own mother used to bake a lot and I was just reminded of her. Both my parents died in a car accident," she said and her voice sounded almost hostile, or at least like she was on her guard. But Narcissa surprised her.

"Oh, I am so sorry for your loss. It must be terrible to lose your parents in such a young age. And especially now, when you would need a mother the most,"

"I guess," Hermione answered vaguely, "But Molly, Mrs. Weasley I mean, has been there for me a lot,"

Narcissa nodded understanding, "That's good, a young woman needs an authority figure in her life that can help her and guide her,"

Hermione didn't understand a thing. Didn't Narcissa hate the Weasleys and muggles? Why was she so understanding and kind about this?

Narcissa smiled at Hermione's surprised look and gave a soft laugh.

"I think I need to explain a little bit for you. First of all, I don't hate you. Not for being a muggle and not even for marrying my son. I simply don't know you. Second and most important, I think you need to know a bit more about me, my family and where we come from. And maybe you can have a little understanding for my son's behavior as well," Narcissa rose from her chair and walked over to a flower that Hermione didn't remember the name on. Narcissa bent over the flower and inhaled its scent.

"Did you know Draco loves gardening?" she asked and even if Hermione couldn't see her face, she could hear in her voice that she smiled.

"No, I didn't," Hermione answered surprised. This was a day for many surprises. Narcissa did not hate her and Draco loved flowers. Who knew?

"Yes, it was through gardening that Draco and I bonded when he was a child. Lucius loved him, but sometimes he was unnecessarily harsh towards him. When Draco was sad I took him outside and took care of the plants in our garden," Narcissa came back and sat down with a sigh.

"When my sisters and I grew up, our parents used to tell us stories about the stupid muggles that were worthless and nothing but filthy thieves. Muggleborns were nothing more than muggles who stole honest witches' and wizards' magic and used them for themselves. We all believed them. But my sister Andromeda, she was the middle child, changed once she came to Hogwarts. She got sorted into Ravenclaw and met several muggleborns. She ended up marrying one. My family got so mad that they refused to talk to her, I hated her too for what she had done,"

Narcissa closed her eyes and didn't say anything for a while. Then she opened them again and smiled weakly towards Hermione.

"Your parents raised you with words that everyone is worth the same, that no one is better than the other no matter who they are, am I right?" she asked.

"Yes, since I was young," Hermione said and sipped her tea. But it had turned cold and she nearly spit it out. She forced herself to swallow it since she didn't want to be rude.

"If your parents instead had told you that you were much better than others, that you could look down on the poor and you should always move like a royalty since your blood was so much better than others. What would your views be?"

Hermione understood her logic and what she wanted Hermione to understand from this conversation.

"I would of course have believed them and thought I was better. Especially if my whole family and relatives told me that,"

Narcissa smiled and nodded, happy that Hermione seemed to understand her point.

"So you see, when I married Lucius, who had the same upbringing that I did but much harsher, we raised our only son thinking the same thing. As I told you, Lucius had a much harder childhood than I, and even if he made it easier for Draco than he ever had, he could still be harsh. But not because he wanted to it, only because he believed that was the way it was supposed to be! He didn't know any other way."

Hermione nodded in agreement and leaned forward and noticed that Narcissa did the same. "But when the years passed, I began thinking differently. We all thought that the Dark Lord was dead and we tried to live our lives as peaceful as possible. I couldn't help but remember my sister Andromeda and her husband. Maybe she wasn't as wrong as I originally thought. But then the Dark Lord came back and all those thoughts disappeared. They were dangerous thoughts in the presence of him. But then he did the unforgivable. He put my only son in danger and didn't care what happened to him.

When things seemed to get out of our hands I realized that our only way of surviving was to turn to the Order. Lucius hated the idea and Draco was afraid. But I am very persuasive and got them to understand the danger and how we could help and keep our status when the war was over. But know this, if my late husband and my son really believed in "mudblood", they would have never switched sides! But both of them had their doubts from time to time, Draco had more than my husband. If they hadn't, they would have never turned to your side in the end," Narcissa finished.

She had been talking for a long time and called for a house elf and asked for refreshment. Hermione was quiet for some time, she needed to process all of this. She understood that she had been a bit short-sighted. These people hadn't chose this, not really. They had been brought up and never got a chance to know any different. Only the middle child, Andromeda, who got sorted into Ravenclaw and therefore met other people who thought differently. But the others didn't have that luck. She looked up and met Narcissa's eyes and nodded carefully.

"I understand," was the only thing she said but Narcissa noticed in her voice that she really meant it. "And although I understand Malfoy's way of thinking I must be honest with you, that I still can't stand him. I'm sorry to hurt you, it's your son I know, but I won't lie."

"I'm glad you are honest with me, and of course I know that you can't like him even after what I have told you. But the fact that you understand says a lot about your character. I don't mean to chase you away, but I need to rest," Narcissa rose from her seat and Hermione followed her. The older women led her to the front door and opened it.

"It was nice talking to you, Hermione. I think we are going to get along quite well even if the circumstances aren't quite normal," Narcissa said and this time she smiled warmly and Hermione understood that she was accepted. Although she had no idea what she had done to make Narcissa think better of her. She had been quiet most of the time!

"Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy. I believe the same," Hermione smiled back and then walked to her "home".

. . .

Narcissa looked after the girl that walked towards the Manor. She smiled to herself and walked inside and a house elf popped next to her with the refreshment.

"Here you go, Mrs." Said the elf and bowed. "Has the young Mrs. Left?" he asked.

"Yes, she just walked away," Narcissa said and drank the pumpkin juice she had in her hand.

"And?" the house elf asked and followed his mistress. Narcissa had always been kind to her house elf and even more so since she moved. She liked to talk to them and tell them her ideas and plans. But she refused to pay them, they were her servants and she did still think them as if they were below her. She was a witch, and they were nothing more but elves!

"I like her, even though Draco is my son she told me the truth that she didn't like him. I knew that of course, but it's nice that she didn't try to lie. She didn't say much but I will talk to her more the next time we meet and ask questions about her."

Narcissa walked to her bedroom as new plans and ideas swirled in her head. Maybe, just maybe this girl could be a lot more than just Draco's fake wife. She was intelligent and wasn't bad looking. If she proved to be worthy, Narcissa might even want to her to stay as Mrs. Malfoy even after these eighteen months. But that wasn't a thought she said out loud. If she was wrong, she wouldn't want to admit that later. And if the Malfoy's didn't gain anything from the marriage, maybe it would be better to split them apart. But for now she would just let the pair be and see what happened.

. . .

. . .

A/N: Review and say what you think about it!


	7. Chapter Seven

"**Just a Stupid Law"**

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and alerts and favorites and all that! It really helps me want to write more and more! Sorry for the late update. Was going to finish this Wednesday, but something serious got in the way that had to take some of my time. A huge thank you to wyntter rose for reading and correcting!

. . .

**Chapter Seven**

. . .

Draco was sitting in his favorite chair in his private room and was reading The Daily Prophet. He could hear Granger in her own room talking with one of the house-elves. He guessed it was Wera, a young house elf that Granger seemed to take a special liking too, even though she claimed that she liked all of them. They had now been married for five days and the media was still talking about their wedding. Even though everyone knew that their marriage was a fake one and a part of the "program", The Daily Prophet loved to discuss it like it had been a real wedding. From time to time, an article showed up discussing the fact that the couple ran away for a moment during the dance in different directions. But the minister shut them up and told them only to write about the good parts. Well, as good as it could have been. Draco wished that they would stop it already. He didn't want to be reminded of that day anymore, that horrible day when he had to kiss Granger. Of course, she wasn't Granger anymore, she was Malfoy. But he refused to think about her like that.

They hadn't spoken since that day after the wedding. Had only said a few words from time to time if it was really necessary, but most of the time they avoided each other. Draco wanted it like that anyway. He wanted to live his life without her so most of the time he pretended like she did not exist or simply wasn't there. And she seemed to do the same. He frowned a little when he thought of his mother. She had invited Granger a second time and they had talked for almost three hours. And Narcissa refused to say anything about these "tea-times" and Draco didn't want to seem interested. He had asked her once, but she had only smiled and said that if he wished to know, he must talk to Hermione himself and find out. And it seemed like the two women actually _liked_ each other! He couldn't figure that out one bit. But after that last meeting, Granger had looked very happy but didn't tell him anything. Once again, Draco didn't want to seem interested.

A soft knock on the door interrupted his thought. He shot an annoyed glance at the door. Granger had never knocked on his door, she hadn't even been in his room. He hadn't set a foot in her room since she moved in either and that was the way he liked it.

"Malfoy? We got a letter and I think it's our first assignment," she said and sounded as annoyed as he felt. "I'll be in the Whiskey Room. If you are interested, you should come downstairs," he could hear her steps walking away and down the stairs. He sighed and rose from his chair to follow her. He did not want this, not at all. When he came into the Whiskey Room, Granger was already reading the letter. She did not even look up at him when he entered.

"We are going on a picnic together. We get to chose the when and where, but we must do it this weekend and we must be public. Not in our own park or in the woods. We must be where people can see us," she held out the letter for him to read. "I suggest we do it on Sunday. It's going to be a nice weather then,"

Draco read the letter quickly and nodded.

"Sure, Sunday's fine with me," he gave back the letter and turned to walk away.

"Uhm, Malfoy? There is something we need to discuss,"

He stopped and turned back to her with one eyebrow arched.

"And what could that be?" he asked.

She bit her lip and looked insecure for a moment.

"Well, as you now, Nott and Ginny have their wedding this Friday and we are both invited. As a couple. So we need to talk about how to act," she finished.

"Act like what?" Draco asked and slowly walked closer to her seat.

"Well, this whole charade requires us to pretend that we are happily in love and all that. So during this wedding we must pretend that we are."

Draco made a face at this and shook his head.

"Hey, I'm not so happy about this either! But I don't what to find out what happens if you break the rules!"

"I know, I know! Well, I guess I can hold your hand and whisper things to you," Draco said. "But don't expect me to whisper sweet words to you!"

"I wouldn't want to hear that either," Granger said coldly. "But that will be fine, we'll have to dance too I guess but we keep it light. And if someone asks why we don't cuddle or kiss like newlyweds would do, I can just say that we're not fans of PDA,"

Draco looked like a question mark which made Granger giggle.

"PDA stands for 'Public Display of Affections'," she explained.

Draco frowned and glared at her, he did not like it when she tried to be smarter than him. 'PDA' must be some kind of muggle word.

"Sure, that'll be fine," was his only answer, turned around and walked away.

. . .

Hermione sat once again in Narcissa Malfoy's beautiful house. It was a rainy day so they stayed inside, but it was very cozy. The rain hit the window pane and the sound made Hermione almost sleepy. One of her favorite sounds was the sound of rain hitting the glass during the night while she slept.

Narcissa had asked her a lot of questions, about her family, about her work and her view on life. And the more Hermione told her, the more she seemed to like her. Hermione did not know what it was that made Narcissa like her so much and she did not dare to ask her.

Simply put, Narcissa liked Hermione's honesty. She never lied or tried hide the fact that she did not share Narcissa opinions. And Narcissa respected people that were themselves no matter who they talked to.

"So, I heard that you got your first assignment?" Narcissa said and leaned backwards in her chair. Hermione nodded and took another chocolate muffin.

"Yes, we are going on a picnic together. Must be this weekend and in public,"

"I see… Well that makes sense. To show everyone how happy you are together," Narcissa said sourly. "How are you and my son handling all of this?"

"Well, we haven't really been talking much. This whole situation is just so weird and extremely frustrating. We are both stuck with a person we can't stand for over a year! And I guess we have an agreement to not disturb each other. I live with my life, he lives with his life. And we only interact when we have to," Hermione said and looked sullen. Narcissa smiled at her choice of word; 'interact'.

"I advised my son to do that on your wedding day, but I have to take that back,"

Hermione looked up at her mother-in-law, surprised that Narcissa would firstly admit that she had said something she regretted but also the fact that she did regret telling her son to live his life.

"What do you mean?" she asked carefully. She eyed the plate with muffins but decided not to take one or else she would gain weight.

"I think that if both of you are going to handle this, maybe you need to talk more. Get to know each other! I'm not saying that you should be best friends or anything, but maybe it will be easier to live with each other. Living like you two do is not healthy. You will get a headache from the pressure and get depressed. To ease up the tension a bit you should get to know each other,"

Hermione didn't know what to say. It sounded so…logical. But she knew from experience that nothing was logical with Malfoy.

"I guess you're right…" Hermione begun slowly.

"Of course I am," Narcissa smiled when she said that and glanced at her watch.

"Oh dear, time really flies when you are having a good time. It's almost six o'clock and you had a meeting with your friend, right?"

Hermione flew up from her chair and thanked the older women for reminding her. She was supposed to meet Ginny since there weren't many days left until her wedding and she had been there for Hermione. She thanked Narcissa again and ran outside and hurried to apparate to the Burrow where she was meeting Ginny.

. . .

It was a hot day and Hermione tried to cool herself by waving her hand by her face. The room was filled with people and that only made it warmer. It was Friday and Hermione sat next to Malfoy waiting for Ginny and Nott to arrive down the aisle. Wizards didn't have the muggle tradition that the father handed his daughter to her husband. The pair was supposed to walk down together to show that they were equal. Hermione actually liked the old tradition. People usually said that it was medieval and that it stood for female oppression, that the man owned the woman. The father's ownership was handed over to her husband. But Hermione never saw it like that. She thought it meant that her father handed over not the ownership, but the responsibility of protection. Well, her opinions had no place here.

She glanced at Draco and couldn't help but think that he was rather handsome. He wore black clothes and it made his hair shine even blonder. She wore a light lilac dress that clung to her body like a second skin, only to flow from her hips down to her feet like a big wave of some sort. She had found it in her wardrobe among the clothes she got when she moved in.

She was a little reluctant to wear clothes Draco had bought her. He had only done it since he didn't think much of Hermione's fashion sense and that he didn't want to be embarrassed by her. Hermione didn't care, he could think whatever he wanted about her. But she thought it was a waste to not use the clothes she got. And the dress was really pretty.

The whole room was filled with the noise of people talking and laughing. From time to time, people looked at Hermione and Draco and whispered something to the person next to them.

Hermione moved at the unease the looks and whispers created. She was used to this kind of attention, but mostly she could handle it or at least endure it. Being one of Harry Potter's best friends gave that attention. She was called "a War Hero", which she didn't think she deserved. She had done great things and helped, but everyone who helped them in the war was a war hero. Why only mention her, Ron and Harry? But now the gossip was all about her marriage with Malfoy and she couldn't stand it anymore.

Like pressing an off-switch, the room went silent and a couple, Ginny and Nott, entered the room. Both looked uncomfortable with the situation. Hermione smiled towards Ginny, to show her support. After all, she had been in the same situation a week ago.

. . .

During the dinner Hermione and Draco sat next to each other at the same table as Harry, a girl Hermione didn't know but that Draco referred to as Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, or Thomas as she was now called, and Dean Thomas. They were sitting in a huge tent outside, just like they had done at their wedding. Hermione refused to look at Draco and only talked to Harry instead.

"So Harry, how are you doing alone in our apartment?" she asked and smiled.

"Ehm, fine actually. I mean… it's lonely of course but I'll manage," he smiled and blushed slightly. Once again she got the feeling that he was hiding something. She suspected it was a girl he was dating but did not want to talk about her. She decided to keep an eye on him this night. Who knew, maybe this mysterious girl was here!

Suddenly she felt Draco take her hand and it squeeze it gently. He was talking to Daphne and laughed at something. Hermione turned towards him and was about to tell him to keep his hands for himself when he turned quickly towards her and said with a soft voice:

"What is it, honey?" he looked concerned but she could see the smirk that was everything but friendly. She looked down at their hands that was entwined and mouthed:

"What the hell?"

He chuckled and leaned forward. With his other hand he pushed her hair aside and put his lips closely to her ear. They almost touched it.

"We are supposed to look married and happily in love, bookworm. I am just doing my job as a loving husband. Believe me, it's not the easiest thing to do with you," he leaned back and smiled at her like he had just said something romantically.

Hermione understood his little game and smiled back to him. She let go of his hand and put it behind his neck, playing with his hair.

"Oh, I see! Well, I must say that the only thing that makes me able to pretend at all to have fun with you is to imagine that I pull out your hair from the roots," she pulled lightly on his hair and giggled like she had just said something naughty.

And like that they spent the rest of the wedding. Doing things that seemed romantic and like a newly-wed would do, but in reality they were whispering bad things they would like to do to each other. They pinched each other and said words like: "I would break your leg if I could," or "You're not even worth as food for the dogs!".

Hermione couldn't help but giggle for real, this was really fun! And she could hear on Draco's chuckle that he had fun too. They were interrupted when someone asked everyone to stand up and clear the floor. The tables were removed and the dance begun. Ginny and Nott stood alone on the dance floor, to begin the first dance. They didn't look too uncomfortable, they actually seemed to get along quite well. It surprised Hermione, but she guessed that Theodore Nott wasn't as bad as Malfoy and the rest. Another Slytherin stood next to Malfoy, a black boy she remembered was called Blaise Zabini. She knew that they were friends, but as far as she knew they weren't best friends. She didn't like the looks she got from him. He eyed her up and down and when she looked his way he smiled and nodded towards her. She ignored him, but noticed that it only made him smile bigger and even more eagerly check her out.

Ginny and Nott finished the dance and the rest joined them on the floor. Draco held out his hand and Hermione took it. They had agreed on one or two dances together so people saw that they were dancing. But no more!

The music started slowly and Hermione recognized the music. It was one of her favorites, called Dark Waltz with the muggle singer Hayley Westenra! She remembered that Nott was a half-blood and had muggle relatives.

She and Draco slowly began dancing and once again she got the feeling that it was a battle of wills. Just like the first dance at their wedding. She looked him in his eyes and he could clearly read that she wouldn't give up in the first place. His mother was right, that night at the wedding. He would have a hard time to get his will over hers. He spun her around and twirled. Both heard people whispered and the older ladies sighed happily at their dance. As soon as the music ended, they let go of each other. He glared at her angrily and walked away. She stood alone and watched him go. She shook her head and didn't understand him. The small tingling feeling she felt after their rather intense dance was quickly suppressed. It didn't mean anything, it wasn't anything towards him.

Someone walked over and stood next to her.

"May I?" a deep voice asked. She turned around and met Zabini's dark eyes. Hermione hesitated but realized that there was no harm in a dance. But during the dance she noticed that the tingling feeling didn't return.

. . .

Draco walked with long steps away from Granger. He didn't fully understand the feeling he had dancing with her. If he didn't know better, he would call it attraction and if he was plain stupid he would have said that she felt the same.

Luckily, Draco did know better and he wasn't stupid. He had imagined it, that's all. Also, he had been quite upset to begin with. Zabini had walked up to him and begun talking. They were friends but also rivals. They had always competed against each other in everything. Grades, power, money, girls…

He saw Daphne standing all alone so he walked over to her and asked her for a dance. She smiled and took his hand and was lead out to the dance floor.

"So, how are you and Mrs. Malfoy? You looked quite cozy during dinner," Daphne said and winked playfully. Draco only snorted as answer.

"Please don't snort, darling," Daphne said and grimaced slightly.

"We weren't cozy. We were pretending. Something you and your husband have seemed to forget, Mrs. Thomas,"

"Pretending, huh? We haven't forgotten anything, but we are simply holding a low profile. And by the way, we aren't in such a spotlight like you and your wife. We are commoners, and no one is interested in our life! But you two are something special. She's a war hero, and you are a Malfoy!"

"Exactly, and that's why we pretend! We have eyes and ears following us everywhere,"

Daphne looked at him and smiled weakly. Then something caught her eye and she widened them in shock.

"Looks like Blaise got eyes on your lady," she said and gently spun around so Draco could see what she saw. Granger and Zabini were dancing and she laughed at something he said.

"So?" Draco asked and spun back again. "It's not like I actually care!"

Daphne sighed and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Draco. Doesn't it look suspicious that your wife is dancing and having fun with a man that she's never met and is your rival? And you don't care?"

Draco seemed to understand her logic and sighed. He let go of her and hurried over to the couple. He didn't have to pretend to be angry, he already was. Angry because he had to watch over Granger and couldn't relax one bit. It was getting to his nerves to constantly see her around. The tension in their house was building up and soon it would release in one hell of a fight.

He knocked hard at Zabini's shoulder and smiled strainedly.

"Excuse me, but would you mind if I got _my wife_ back?" he said and took her hands, clearly showing it wasn't a question. Zabini shrugged and smiled towards Hermione before he walked away. Draco continued the dance with her.

"What did you do that for?" she asked angrily.

"Saving our reputation. Daphne pointed out that you two looked too familiar with each other for not being familiar. So in order to keep up the pretence of being the jealous, deep-in-love husband, I hurried over to get my _lady_ back,"

Hermione was about to protest but was interrupted by someone accidently shoved her so she fell towards Draco. He caught her right before she fell to the ground and held her for a while. She seemed bothered and blushed.

"Thank you," she mumbled and he realized that is was a genuine thank you, not a fake one that she said just to keep up the pretence. He was surprised at this, since he would have guessed she would never thank him and mean it.

"You're welcome," he muttered back and raised her to her feet before he let her go. He turned around to walk away again, but stopped.

"Just so you know, this count as dance number two," than he hurried away. Somehow, he couldn't be around her for very long time before he had to walk away. She was really getting to his nerves.

. . .

. . .

A/N: Review please and tell me what you think! I know it goes rather slowly, but I don't want to rush things either. But at least you got some Dramione attraction. So it's going in the right direction at least ^^


	8. Chapter Eight

**"Just a Stupid Law"**

A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! It feels fantastic every time I open my email and find them! Also, thank you to everyone who put this story on Alert or favourite!

Sorry for the late update, but had a lot to do right now. I have tests almost every week and it's no easy stuff: Maths, Chemistry and Physics. And this chapter was HARD to write! I don't know why, but it just was.

Thanks so much for 4SnowWolf for Beta-reading this chapter, you are really a life saver!

. . .

**Chapter Eight**

. . .

It was late when Hermione looked around for Malfoy. After their last dance, he had disappeared and wasn't seen by anyone. Blaise had asked her to dance again, but she had turned him down. She had a great time with him, but she had also seen the logic in Daphne's statement. It would look very strange, if she danced and had fun with a man she barely knew only a week after her marriage.

No one had left the wedding yet, but it was almost two in the morning and Hermione was tired after working all day. But she couldn't leave without Malfoy and she really wanted to go. She walked over to Theo who was talking to Daphne.

"Uhm, Hello. Have any of you seen Ma… Draco?" she asked and felt a little bit uncomfortable. She didn't remember them much, since they had been a lot in the background during their school year. But they were friends with Malfoy after all…

Daphne turned around and eyed her carefully before she spoke.

"Sorry, I haven't. Have you?" She turned to Theo who shook his head.

"Oh, well okay, thanks anyway," Hermione said and walked away and could almost feel their eyes on her neck. She walked among the people and wanted to find Ginny, but she was in the midst of her friends from Hogwarts and Hermione didn't want to intrude.

"Hermione!" someone called behind her and she turned to face him. Harry and Ron walked towards her, looking serious.

"Harry! Ron! I'm so glad to see you! Have you seen Ma...erm I mean Draco?" she asked them. Both looked at each other and then at Hermione.

"Could we talk for a moment?" Harry asked and got hold of her arm pulling her away from the crowd.

"What is it?" she asked and looked between them nervously. Had something happened?

"Wait until we get a little further," they walked through a small garden that couldn't even be compared to the Manor in size or Narcissa's in beauty. A few trees and bushes that smelled great but nothing more. They walked until the noise from the wedding was only a low chatter behind them and stopped. Hermione took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever bad news they were coming with.

"What's going on with you and Malfoy?" Ron glared at her as he almost spit out the words. Hermione backed away a few steps, taken aback with his harsh tone.

"What do you mean?" she asked hurtful.

"Don't pretend…" Ron begun but Harry interrupted.

"We saw you and him being very cosy with each other. No offend Mione, but it's Malfoy! What were you thinking? He's a Slytherin!"

Hermione almost froze and only stared at them. If she hadn't been so shocked she would have laughed at them. They thought they were being serious. They actually thought that she and Malfoy were in love!

"What are YOU thinking? Hello, we are MARRIED! We have to pretend to be in some kind of love-fool state! You know this or at least Ron should know!" Hermione turned and glared at him. "You are in the same position as I am and you know you have to pretend to be in love with Mandy. This was the whole idea of forced marriage!" Hermione was so upset by now that she had to stop talking and took several deep breaths. How dare they accuse her of such a thing? They did look a little bit insecure, but when Ron begun speaking he took away her illusion of them realising their mistake.

"You don't have to look that cosy, a-and…passionate!" he had red spots on his cheeks and ears like he usually had when he was upset.

"Passionate? Do you know what we said to each other? We were telling each other how much we hate each other and what kinds of torture we wanted to do on each other! Dripping melting iron on his eyeballs and all that. So before you make up your own explanation you should stop and ask me about it first," she turned around and did a Malfoy: walking away.

. . .

They party continued for another hour and then people started to disappear home. Hermione was still looking for Malfoy but couldn't see him anywhere. When only a handful of guests were left, she walked over to Ginny and said goodbye. She would go home alone then without him. She kissed Ginny's cheeks and promised to meet her soon again. She hadn't seen Harry or Ron since she left them and assumed they had gone home. She looked around in search for Malfoy and accidentally bumped into a girl. In her hand she held a glass of something and it poured out all over Hermione's dress.

"I'm so sorry! Oh, please forgive me!" the girl said and Hermione steadied her as she was about to fall.

"It's okay," Hermione smiled and tried not to think about the beautiful dress being ruined. She took a closer look at the girl and realized that it was Tracey Davis who sat at their table. A cute girl who had been in Slytherin, if she remembered correctly.

"Tracey, right?" She said and the girl looked up frightened. She had big blue eyes and a heart-shaped face with dark hair in waves.

"Has he talked about me? With both of you?" she answered surprised. Hermione had no idea who she talked about.

"Ehm, I don't think so. We sat at the same table before and I heard Draco call you Tracey," Hermione said a little bit unsure. The young woman almost looked disappointed.

"Oh, of course. Never mind what I said then," she said and smiled weakly. "Sorry, if I ruined your dress. I'll pay for it."

Hermione shook her head. "No, no, I won't let you. I'll get it cleaned up or I'll get Draco buy me a new one. He loves to spoil me," she forced a laugh and winked. Had to keep up the pretence, even if he had left her to go somewhere and not care how it would look like.

Tracey laughed too and nodded.

"You must be happy to be paired up with him. He's very charming and you look very happy. It's nice to see that your marriage is working for you," Hermione nodded and agreed with her. "Well, I better go now," Hermione made a movement to the area where people apparated. Tracey nodded, said "Good Bye" and walked away, too. Hermione looked after the girl and wondered who she was talking about. Someone Hermione knew obviously, but she couldn't understand who it was. She decided to go home alone. Her dress was ruined and she needed to clean it up properly before she went to bed. Malfoy would come home eventually.

She apparated home and arrived outside the Mansion. It was completely dark, which was very strange since the house elves had promised to keep the house lit until they arrived. It had been raining here and she left deep tracks in the mud. She stopped and looked at the mud closely. No other tracks, Malfoy couldn't be home. He had told her himself that no one could apparate in and out from the house or area around it, unless you already were inside. She finally walked through the gates and could apparate to the door to save time and not get any muddier. She cleaned up her shoes and entered the house. It was dark so she had to use her wand to find the stairs. She had got in just in time, the rain begun streaming down again.

"Mrs. Malfoy?" a tiny voice said. Hermione jumped and turned quickly around.

"It's just Hemmy, Misses" The small house elf said. "Hemmy thought everyone was already home. Hemmy thought Misses would arrive with Master, but that she had already walked to her room," Hemmy hung her head in sadness of doing something wrong. "Hemmy apologizes so much for being a bad elf and put out the light for Misses."

"Malfoy is home?" was all Hermione could say and stared at the small figure.

Hemmy nodded sadly. "He's in his room, sleeping. Has been for several hours."

Hermione ran upstairs and called out behind her: "I forgive you Hemmy!" and kept running. She hurried up to his door and waved her wand calling out: "Alohomora!" The door opened up and she stormed inside the only room she hadn't been in. It was huge with very little furniture, a impressive bed where he was asleep in, a closet where he kept his clothes, a mirror and a few books piled up on a side table. An open door led out to the bathroom, but she couldn't see much of it from where she stood.

Draco woke up as she shouted: "How dare you leave without me? You could at least have told me you were leaving!"

Draco grunted, rose from his bed and glared at her. He only wore a pair of deep green pajamas pants, keeping his chest bare.

"Why should I tell you that? I don't have to tell you anything at all!"

"We are supposed to be happily married! Happily married couples don't leave without each other! People could have thought that you left with a mistress or something. You were so keen to keep up this stupid pretence during the wedding, so why suddenly screw everything and leave? Did you just want an excuse to touch my thigh?" Hermione sneered. Draco had red spots on his cheeks and walked closer. Hermione backed away, a little bit afraid of the loathing in his eyes. He kept coming. She hit the wall behind her and Draco was impossibly close to her without touching her.

"Listen up and listen carefully, you filthy little mudblood. I will never touch you, because I want to. I only touch you, because I have to and believe me, I clean myself pretty good after wards," he held up his hand and it was red from scrubbing it clean. His smirk was so evil and so full of contempt. "So don't you go and believe that I desire you or anything. You are nothing more but a piece of filth." He backed away and walked to his bed. "Don't ever set your foot in her again!

Hermione put a hand on her mouth to stop herself from sobbing and hurried outside. She could hear him chuckle behind her as she closed the door.

. . .

She woke up late but since it was Saturday she didn't care. She pulled the covers above her head to keep the light out. She thought about staying here so long until the oxygen would end and she would be choked to death. But she had never been suicidal and wouldn't begin now. When it became too hot she pulled the covers back down and off her head. Her face was swollen from the crying. To hear all that hate directed at her was too much. She had already fought with Harry and Ron and she felt so alone. She curled up into a ball and closed her eyes hard. She thought back at those summers at the Burrow when she, Harry and the Weasley's were spending each evening outside in the warmth, laughing. They didn't think about the worry or the pressure of the world. They were just happy. Her only worry was about her parents, how they were and if they missed her. Thinking about them made her stomach wrench, as she remembered her mother's soft arms around her, her father's laugh as he told a bad joke. It was all coming back to her and she couldn't hold the tears back.

"Mom!" she cried and curled to an even tighter ball. "Mom! Why aren't you here? You were supposed to be here and comfort me and help me through all of this. I'm so tired of being alone." She cried hard and felt the sobs tearing her chest. She cried until she fell asleep again and slept for over an hour. When she woke up again and the sun had moved further in the sky. She rose from her bed and felt awful. She got into her bathroom for a shower and to splash some cold water on her face. She dressed in soft, comfortable clothes and walked quietly down the stairs. The small area where they ate breakfast was empty so she continued through the doors and down the stairs that led to the actual kitchen. She had only been there once before but it was the house elves area. She pushed opened another door and walked inside. It was filled with house elves who all were working. She stood still for a moment and a house elf come up to her.

"Do you need anything Misses?" He asked and bowed. Hermione nodded and asked for something to eat.

"Of course, Misses. I will prepare something for you straight away!" The elf bowed again and hurried away to get something for her. She walked up the stairs to the kitchen table again but froze when she saw Malfoy sitting at it. He glanced up at her but didn't say anything. Hermione stood still for a moment and then the house elf came with her food.

"Please, could you take it to my room?" she asked the elf and smiled towards it. The elf nodded and tried to bow carefully before he left. Hermione was about to walk away too when an owl flew in and towards her. She took the letter done in a hand she didn't recognize. Curious she opened the letter and motioned for the owl to take some old bread that lay in a basket before it left. She quickly glanced down at the signature before she begun to read. It was signed by Blaise Zabini. She smiled and looked up from the letter and almost jumped. Draco stood up and was walking closer to her. She backed away, but this time made sure no walls were behind her. He stopped surprised at the look on her face. Then his face hardened.

"I won't hit you or anything," he said coldly. "You should probably tell Zabini that it is inappropriate to send letters to a married woman."

"Why do you believe it's from him?" she hissed, angry at how he made her feel. Like a scared child. It's true; he'd never hit her, although she had hit him once in their third year, but his words could hit her just as hard.

"I see his handwriting," he answered and nodded towards the envelope, "just a warning, he may be charming and all, but he isn't as good as he pretends to be. He is bad company."

"And you're not?" Hermione folded her arms over her chest and hid the letter so he wouldn't see that it really was from Blaise. Draco smirked and cocked his head slightly.

"I didn't say that, but you're stuck with me for eighteen months. You can't stay away from me."

"Well, it doesn't really matter since it wasn't from him anyway," she said and turned around to walk away. She felt his grip around her arm and turned back.

"Let go of me, you twisted ferret," she hissed and yanked free, you have no reason of touching me, so stay away." She didn't even stay to look at his reaction but hurried away to her room. She was still upset after what he had told her last night and she didn't want anything to do with him. She remembered the letter in her hand and begun to read it:

_"Dear Hermione. Thank you for last night, you are a very good dancer and it was a great displeasure to have our dance interrupted. Perhaps we can meet over dinner in the near future. Of course, only as friends since you are a married woman. But your marriage won't last forever, if I'm right and it would be nice to get to know each other. Sincerely Blaise"_

Hermione smiled a little and bit her lip. She really wanted to go, since he was a very handsome and a real gentleman. She gripped a quill and some parchment and wrote down a quick note, thanking him and accepting the invite. She folded it and snuck out from her room to the small room where they kept their owls. She tied her note to her owl and sent it away. She then walked back to her room and locked the door. The sun began to shine as the clouds slowly parted and drifted away. She picked up a book she had begun reading and sat down in a comfortable chair next to a window and begun to read. She had been reading for over an hour when someone knocked on her door and a tiny voice said:

"Mrs. Malfoy? May I come in?" Hermione took her wand and with a quick motion she unlocked the door and let the elf come in. The house elf could probably enter the room without the need to unlock it, but they always showed respect to people and knocked anyway. It was Wera, the house elf that Hermione liked the most.

"Mr. Malfoy sent me to ask Misses about the picnic tomorrow. He said…," the elf hesitated but continued after an encouraging nod from Hermione, "...he said that although the Misses prefer to sulk in her room, he doesn't want to disobey the Minister," she blushed at her words. "Mind that these aren't Wera's words, but Mr. Malfoy's words."

"Of course Wera, I understand. And you know that you should call me Hermione or Mione. No need to keep the formality," Hermione adjusted the house elf's towel that she had wrapped around her and had gotten loose.

"Tell Mr. Malfoy that there is no need to worry, I got everything under control. Tell him to be ready at noon and meet me at the door." Wera nodded and got out from the room with a small pang. Hermione made sure to lock the door again, but picked up a piece of parchment and wrote down what she wanted to bring on their picnic. At least they could have some delicious food with them. Afterwards she walked down to the kitchen and begun preparing. Several house elves wanted to do it, but Hermione insisted on doing it herself. She used to be a terrible cook even with magic, but after her parents died, she had kept all of her mother's cook books and decided to learn the traditional way. Mrs. Weasley had helped her a lot and also taught her how to cook with magic. She had got better and better and was now quite good. She did allow the elves to help her with some things since they wanted to help so badly and besides, she could still use some help.

Since she had slept for so long they worked the whole afternoon. They cooked, boiled and fried. They baked and they mixed. She was proud of herself when they were done. A few house elves had to stop making the picnic food and start with the dinner. Hermione decided to help out when she was ready since it had been fun to cook with the small creatures. While Hermione walked back to her room to clean herself up, they brought the food to the dining room.

Malfoy was already sitting at the table and Hermione sat as far away as she could. She remembered Narcissa's advice to get to know each other, but she couldn't do it. She was still hurt from his behaviour and she didn't want to get to know him. They ate in complete silent and left the table without a look at each other. The whole atmosphere was even colder than when she first arrived. Malfoy hadn't even apologized or didn't seem to care at all of what he had done. And Hermione didn't want to care or be affected by his words, but still, it hurts.

. . .

Draco stood in front of his closet and looked through his clothes. It was going to be a sunny day and he had to dress more muggle like for the picnic. Adult wizards usually never wore muggle clothes, only those who "mainstreamed" as it was called. Younger wizards and witches had been more accustomed to the way muggles dressed and sometimes preferred it. Robes could get a little bit too warm and jeans and sweater were more comfortable to move around in. Draco, who was a pure-blood, hadn't had this kind of upbringing where muggle clothes were okay. But he had learned to like it more and more.

He finally put on some dark blue jeans and a white shirt. It was easy enough. He then cleaned up his room before he walked downstairs to meet Granger. He didn't feel ashamed of what he had told her the other night. He had seen that it had hurt her and although it didn't give them same satisfaction as it used to, he couldn't bring himself to apologize for what he had said. Why would he? He didn't have to be nice to her, he didn't like her at all. His mother had talked to him and got the whole story out of him. She had been furious with him for behaving like that towards a woman, but Draco had only nodded and didn't let her words have any great impact on him.

He now stood at the door and waited for Granger to arrive. He kept glancing up the stairs, but was surprised to see her coming from the kitchen area. She laughed at something Wera said and both were carrying a basket each. The witch froze as she saw him and stopped laughing. She looked down at Wera and nodded towards the elf. She in return walked up towards Draco and gave him the basket. He took it from her and looked down at it. It wasn't heavy since it only contained blankets, sweaters and a small container that made sloshing sounds, probably some liquid. Hers seemed a lot heavier.

"Should we switch?" he offered, not so much out of kindness but because his mother had told him to behave, at least during the picnic.

"Why should we?" Granger answered coldly and walked past him through the door. Malfoy sighed and hurried after her. This wasn't going to be easy. Not that he minded, if she picked a fight with him he had all the rights to defend himself.

They walked towards the Apparition point outside the house. It was a clear blue sky and the ground had dried up. On their way through the gates Granger asked him, "How did you come home the other night after the wedding? I didn't see any tracks in the mud. Did you use Floo powder?"

Draco hesitated, he was unsure, if he should tell her. He hadn't used the Floo network, but if he told her the truth she might get into one of her rages again. On the other hand, that would be quite fun. He smirked a little at this and decided that it was worth it.

"I apparated directly inside the house. When I'm out drinking I don't trust the Floo network, I might pronounce the words wrong and to apparate outside the house and then walk all the way up isn't the smartest idea either. So I always open up a apparition point to my room before I leave for a party or something," he glanced at her and was disappointed. All he got was a raised eyebrow and a "Huh." from her. No screaming and rages? Well, that wasn't much fun.

They got to the Apparition point and Granger held out her hand towards him. He looked questioning on it.

"So we get to the right place." she said curtly. He took it and could feel how she slightly pulled like she wanted to pull out from his grip, but then she made a sharp turn and both disappeared.

They re-appeared again among some trees close to a green lawn. She let go of his hand and walked out from the trees.

"Where are we?" he asked and looked around.

"We are at the only park for wizards and witches only in London. It is quite new and it is hidden like Diagon Alley."

Draco nodded, he had heard about it. There were several people spread across the lawn, young wizards and witches stood by a huge pond and threw bread to the swans that swam across it and shrieked once a swan came close enough to hiss.

Draco reached out and took her basket from her and tried to smile as warmly as possible.

"Let me carry that for you, honey!" he said and she smiled shyly back and nodded. They came to a spot that looked suitable and Hermione quickly took a blanket and spread it out. She always packed an extra blanket and two pillows. Draco hadn't been aware of this. Hermione gave him one of them and he lay back on it watching as she packed up the food. He couldn't help but make big eyes at what she was unpacking. There where sandwiches with salami, lettuce, tomatoes and Brie. She had weird pieces of bread that she called Pita which were stuffed with more lettuce, chicken, cucumber and tomatoes. There was a small box of cherry tomatoes and a package with cold pieces of roast beef. A bottle of wine and two glasses were placed with the food. She smiled and handed him one of the glasses.

"Here you go," he took it and she poured. She then filled her own glass before she put it down. "Let's eat!"

Draco reached for the Pita and took bite.

"Wow! I didn't know the elves could make these or even knew what it was!"

"They didn't," answered Hermione taking a bite from a cherry tomato. "I made these."

Draco looked at her for a moment then shrugged.

"What?" she hissed but tried to calmed down immediately after her outburst. Glancing around she hoped no one had seen or heard her. They were supposed to be happy after all.

"Nothing, I just didn't know you could cook," he replied casually and took another bite.

She blinked at him and a small "Oh," escaped her lips. "Well, there is a lot you don't know," she said, meaning to tease him. He simply nodded again, not wanting to react in any way, neither with a laugh nor a frown.

They were silent for a while and just ate. Although he wanted to glare at her and show his dismay of being here with her, he couldn't in case someone saw it. She seemed to think the same, because she begun glaring but then reminded herself of their situation and looked away. Finally she sighed and looked straight at him.

"Okay, we have to be more romantic than this. People will start to notice that we look the other way and try not to glare at each other." She rolled her eyes at this. Draco only kept gazing at her. Hermione took the initiative and moved closer to him, taking his hand. The whole atmosphere screamed: Awkward!

"This isn't working." Draco mumbled and tried to look away.

"Let's just talk normally to each other. Married couple tend to do that too, you know." Hermione said sarcastically. Draco ignored her and asked the first question that popped to his mind.

"Where did you learn to cook and bake? These are home-made I presume?"

"Yes, they are. Actually I wasn't very good at cooking before I was nineteen. Then I got my mother's cookbooks and begun practising in order to learn it by myself. Also Molly Weasley helped me with some magical tips which made me even better at it."

"Why didn't your mother teach you?" he asked, but sensed immediately that this was the wrong question. She got quiet and begun to fidget with the blanket as she looked away. If they had been married for real or if he had liked her, it would have been the perfect moment to do something romantic like touching her cheek and ask her about it. But how could he? Since their fight he had a hard time to even show a straight face towards her.

"Want to talk about it?" he said instead to fill the silent.

"They died in a car accident," she said and then carefully wiped a few tears away. She shook her head and smiled.

"So, what's your secret? Something unusual that no one knows about?" Draco gratefully accepted the new direction in their conversation.

"Actually, I like gardening," he said before he gave it a second thought.

"Gardening?" Hermioner giggled and bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. "Really? How come?"

Draco frowned at her, but sighed in defeat.

"My mother loved to take care of her garden and I used to help her. It was a way for us to spend time together," he shrugged it off like it didn't matter, but she sensed that it did. She smiled softly and it seemed like she meant it.

"My mother used to read a lot for me and my dad helped me with my studies when I begun a muggle school before Hogwarts. That was our bonding time and so it has a special place in my heart," she explained. Draco wanted to say something mean to her about it, but couldn't bring himself to do it. He sighed and remembered what his mother had said about behaving and get to know each other.

"Listen, I'm sorry for the other day. It was unnecessary and harsh of me to say what I did. Although I don't really like you, there is no reason for a man to behave like that towards a woman."

She seemed surprised and then a little amused.

"Tell your mother, thank you, for her kind words," she replied and took a sip from the wine.

"I just apologized to you and you claim it's my mother's words? I'm insulted!" He said angrily. Hermione laughed so hard at his face that she fell backwards.

"I fail to see what's funny here, Granger!" he hissed but she continued to laugh at him. It took her sometime to pull herself together.

"You should have seen your face," she smiled. "I'm sorry for laughing at you and may I suggest that perhaps we should try to be civil to each other. To an extent at least."

"Fine by me," Draco answered.

During the rest of the picnic they talked about hobbies and dreams. Not very deep thoughts or wants just shallow things. No one wanted to let the other get to deep in their heads. When most of the food was eaten, Hermione took out a huge cake.

"My mother's triumph cake which she did to birthdays and special occasions: Chocolate Truffle Cake!" She put it down and with her wand sliced up a piece. She then removed a box of strawberries and another one filled with whipped cream from one of the baskets.

Draco took a small fork of the cake and tasted carefully.

"Wow, this is delicious!" he exclaimed and took another bite. She smiled and thanked him, taking a forkful herself. He surprised her by taking a strawberry, spreading some cream on it and held it out for her to bite. He shrugged when she looked at him.

"We gotta do something romantic," he said and made sure that people looked at them. Another smile was aimed at him and then she leant forward. She took a bite and closed her eyes.

"They are so sweet! Here, have one, yourself" she picked one up and did the same for him. They sat relaxed together, exchanged food and talked about normal things again. It wasn't that bad really and Draco almost felt like he could like her, if she wouldn't have been such a stuck-up know-it-all.

After they were finished eating, Hermione lay down on her pillow and closed her eyes as the sun shone in her face. Hesitantly, Draco did the same next to her.

"How come that we got matched up in this bizarre game?" she asked and tilted her head towards him. "We can't stand each other and we'll never be friends!"

Draco didn't know what to answer. It was such a good question. Why had they been matched up?

"I don't know," was all he could say.

They lay like that for the rest of the picnic, wondering what had really happened to them and why.

. . .

. . .

A/N: So. To compensate for the long wait I did a longer chapter. A lot longer, if you look at the word count. Thank you for being patient and wonderful readers! Review and tell me what you thought about it.


	9. Chapter Nine

**"Just a Stupid Law"**

A/N: So, why the update has been very late has several reasons. First, I had a lot to do before school ended. After that I had only one week off before I went to London. During that week I spent time with friends and family. I came back Sunday and that's why there have been a very long time between chapters. I am really sorry for this and hope I can make up for it!

A Big Thank You! to 4SnowWolf for helping me out with Beta! Thank you so much!

. . .

**Chapter Nine**

. . .

Hermione was sitting in her office, reading through her papers. The Squad had sent her a report of an old wizard who had been practising magical experiments. He had tried to breed different magical creatures with each other and also tried to do new deadly spells. Not only did he break the law by doing these things, if a wizard did invent a new spell he had to be reported that, but he also tried the spells and the new magical creatures on muggles!

Hermione was horrified at the things she read, and decided that this crime was definitely a job for Wizengamot. She wrote her own report and sent it down, along with the evidence, to the Wizengamot office. They had to read it and take the final decision if it really was up to them. Hermione merely gave her opinion about it, but since she was really good at her job, they listened at it and followed it through.

It was at the same time she sent the note away, that her door knocked.

"Come on in," Hermione said and made sure her hair looked fine. A woman entered with huge bouquet in a white vase.

"This is for you, Mrs. Malfoy," the woman said and smiled brightly. "When that young man entered and told us to send this to you, we all almost fainted! How romantic! It is just beautiful!" the woman kept talking as Hermione reached out and took the vase. It was beautiful. Dark pink and light pink roses, pink Stargazer lilies, white lilies, a flower who reminded her of lavender and a lot of green leafs. And everything smelled wonderful!

"…and we wondered if this really were appropriate for a man…" the woman hadn't noticed that Hermione had stopped listening.

"That's great! Thank you, but I must continue to work now," Hermione said and smiled.

"Oh, how silly of me! Of course you have too, I must work myself you see. He left a card, it's tied to the bouquet! Bye now!" And then the woman left. Hermione shook her head at the over-excited woman. She put the vase at a small table in the corner behind her and took the note.

_"Beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman._

_Thank you for accepting,_

_Your friend_

_-B"_

B? B as in… Blaise? Hermione blushed deeply. He sent her flowers? He sent her the most beautiful bouquet? She was sure it was him, she recognized the handwriting. The part about accepting must mean her reply on dinner. She couldn't help it, but she smiled. She had never received anything like this in her life!

She sat down at her desk again and begun reading, but during the whole day she kept glancing at the flowers that sent their fragrance out in the room.

When she was going home, she took the flowers with her. She apparated outside the Manor and walked between the colonnades of trees up to the big house. A house elf greeted her in the hall and took her coat and other things.

"Beautiful flowers!" the small creature admired and took a sniff. Hermione nodded and walked towards her room. She had a hard time seeing in front of her because of the big bouquet, but she managed to get up the stairs without trouble. When she turned the corner she nearly bumped into Malfoy.

"Watch i-" he begun but stopped. "What are those?" he asked instead.

"You see, there is something called _a plant_. From these plants sometimes beautiful things grow that are called flowers." Hermione said and tried to walk pass him.

"I know what a bloody flower is, what I meant was where did you get them?"

"From a friend," she said and finally got passed him. He followed after her as she opened the door to her room.

"Let me guess, Blaise?" he asked as he entered her room. She put the flowers down on a table that stood in front of her fireplace and turned around. Malfoy was glancing around and she realized that he had never been in here since she moved in.

"That is none of your business. Now, I need to shower and I rather shower in mud then let you see me naked, so shoo!" She folded her arms over her chest and tapped her foot.

Malfoy simply raised an eyebrow.

"If I ever see you naked, I'll have to wash my eyes with soap afterwards and ask someone to obliviate me," he smirked and turned back. Before he closed the door he said, "Blaise isn't a good guy, really. But I guess you'll learn that the hard way,"

Hermione shook her head, wondering what was wrong with him. She picked up some new panties and walked towards her bathroom. She decided to take a bath instead of a shower and filled the tub with hot water. She grimaced at the small pouch with lilac sand in it that would foam the water. She had always preferred to bath in pure water, feeling fresher afterwards. With foam and bubbles, she always felt soaked in soap and perfume. As the water filled the tub, she gently pushed down her pants and pulled off her sweater. When she stood in her bra and panties, she found a towel and put it on a small stool so she could easily reach it when she was ready. Peeling off her panties and bra, she then slowly lowered herself into the hot water. She leaned her head back on a soft waterproof pillow at the end of the tub and listened to the water that still filled the tub. Pure bliss for a tired body! With her foot, she turned the knob to stop the water from flowing. She was thinking about Blaise and wondered what Malfoy really meant. She knew he was lying of course, but why? What would he gain, more than keep them apart? They weren't in love or anything, so it wouldn't be such a tragedy for Hermione, if they never met again. She decided to ignore Malfoy, like she usually did and simply enjoy her time with Blaise.

. . .

It was Draco who received the next assignment. An owl knocked on the window to his Whiskey Room late at night. He took the letter and opened it. No need to wait for Granger, after all she did not wait for him last time.

_"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy,_

_Your next assignment is to have ball for all of your friends. A perfect opportunity to get to know each other's friends and families better. The official word is that it is a ball to celebrate your love and marriage and there are certain requirements that you have to follow:_

_1 Both of you have to stay close to each all night; remember, you are in love and don't want to be apart from each other._

_2 You both need to talk to at least 4 people from your partners circle of friends/family to get to know them better._

_3 At least 7 dances with each other's are required. Do not dance with the same person, except your partner, more than twice. At least half of all dances must be with your partner._

_4 During dinner you must sit next to each other._

_5 You mustn't under any circumstances show that you are unhappy or not in love at any time during the night._

_6 If you wish, you may go to bed earlier than the ball ends, but then both must go to bed at the same time, sleep in the same room and you can't leave any sooner than 2.00 am. This to give the illusion that you wish to spend time alone._

_That was all, you have three weeks to prepare. Mr. Dural will attend your ball to see that everything is followed through._

_Good Luck!_

_Amelia Bones_

_Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement _

Draco sighed at all these rules and shook his head. He rose from his chair and decided to go to Granger's room to tell her about it. She had been there for over an hour, so she must have finished. He hurried upstairs and opened her door. She was nowhere to be seen and the bathroom door was closed, so he decided to sit down on her couch and wait.

He glanced at her flowers and saw something white that wasn't a flower. He checked that she wasn't walking near the door and quickly read the note.

Accepting? B? B as in Blaise? Accepting what? He returned to the couch, leaned back again and stared at the door to her bathroom. He admitted that he as curious, but refused to ask her. That way he had to admit to her that he was curious AND that he had read the note. As he was staring at the door, it opened and Hermione out walked wearing nothing more than panties. She froze when she saw him and then screamed.

"What are you doing here!" she ran towards a chair where a piece of clothes lay and picked it up to cover her bare chest. Not that it mattered much, Draco had already seen_ them_ and the image was in his head. He covered his eyes.

"Damn it, Granger! Why won't you wear clothes like normal people do?"

"Why don't you knock on the door and wait outside like normal people do? I thought our rooms were off limits for each other!" She had put on a small dress, but her wet hair was now tangled all around her face and made the dress wet. Luckily, it was a dark blue dress and not a white one.

"I came here since we had got an assignment and I thought you might want to know about it," he threw the letter on the table and hurried to the door. "We can talk about it tomorrow instead," he shut the door and almost ran to his own room. He leaned back at his door and closed his eyes, breathing heavily.

He didn't know what was worse, the fact that he couldn't get the image of her wet breasts out off his head or that he actually liked the picture.

. . .

Hermione was furious at him for so many things. For entering her room without her permission, twice this day, for always getting on her nerves, for seeing her boobs. She blushed at that thought and folded her arms over them, although she was dressed and no one was there. She sat down on the couch and picked up the letter. She read it and sighed. Three weeks was at least some time, but a ball? They had to send out invitations as soon as possible and order food and what not. Once again she felt like her whole inside were filled with despair and that she was trapped. She never asked for any of this and she missed her friends. She hadn't talked to any of them in such a long time. Not since the wedding. She decided to try and meet them, over lunch, drop by their house, apartments, or wherever they might be. It was after all Saturday tomorrow so everyone should be availed. Perhaps she would meet Narcissa as well and ask for help with the ball. She had to see the friends, feel loved and be around equals.

Once the decision was made, she could go to bed and sleep, knowing that she would talk with her friends tomorrow.

She woke up at 8 the next morning and began preparing for the day. Brushing hair and teeth, dress, put on some make-up and the go down and eat breakfast.

Malfoy was sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and reading a book. It seemed to have been read often since it could lie flat with its cover down without making the pages flip back. He glanced up, but quickly looked down again when he met her eyes.

"Morning," he mumbled and took another sip.

"Good morning," she said and rolled her eyes. She sat down in front of him and began buttering a piece of bread. She took some salad, cucumber and cheese and put it on before she took a bite. They sat in silent for a long and awkward time, both knowing what the other was thinking of…

"Okay, look. Let's forget about what happened yesterday. There'll be a new rule: we shall never enter each other's rooms without permission, clear?" Hermione said to break the silent. Malfoy looked up and nodded.

"Yes, you are right." he said and then he looked down at his book again. Hermione was stunned at him ignoring her.

"An apology should perhaps be forthcoming?" she pointed out sharply.

"For what?" he said and kept staring down at his book. It was obvious that he wasn't reading, his eyes didn't move one bit.

"For entering without permission!" Hermione accused him. This time, Malfoy looked up and smirked.

"I don't have to apologize for anything. Yesterday you hadn't said that I was not allowed to enter your room and therefore I didn't break any rules. If, however, I would enter your room today, heaven forbid, I would break it and have to apologize." with that he looked down again and left Hermione speechless. If this was how this man's logic worked, then how messed up was he? It was natural for her to apologize, if she intruded someone's personal life, but Malfoy didn't see it like that. Or he simply loved to mess around with her.

"I have some errands to run, we'll talk later about the ball." she said and rose from her chair, taking her sandwich with her.

"We have been invited over to Daphne tonight. She and her _husband_ are having a small get together with her friends from school. One of their assignments."

"Oh, I see. Doesn't everyone get the same assignments?" Hermione asked, more to herself.

"Apparently not," Malfoy replied. "just be ho-… just be back before six. We are going to be there at eight"

Hermione nodded and walked to the door to get away from this place. She had heard is words. He was about to say _home_, but both knew that this wasn't her home. It never would be home for her, just a place where she had to stay at for some time.

. . .

Her first visit took her to Harry's and her old apartment. She hoped her room was still intact, they hadn't said anything to her to get her things out from there.

She gently knocked on the door and waited. She heard his steps and the snap from the lock before the door opened. Harry stood in jeans and a black t-shirt and his hair was a mess as usual. He stared at her for a few moments before he pulled her in to a hug.

"I am such a jerk." was all he said. Hermione stifled a laugh and said:

"Indeed you are." and then both laughed as they walked inside for some tea and talk.

It felt great to speak to him again, her best friend that she had shared so much with. They talked and talked and he wanted to know every little detail about her life and particularly about any stupid things Malfoy did. Her room was just like she left it and she asked, if he wanted her to remove her things.

"You could use that space for other things. If things haven't changed when I finally get away from Malfoy, then I could later move my stuff back." Harry nodded and agreed that she was right, he could use the space.

"But before we do anything about the room, I want to know what you have been keeping from us all." Hermione said and smiled. Harry sighed and looked out the window.

"I guess I should tell you all." he said and met Hermione's eyes. "I have been seeing someone, a girl. She's very sweet but I was afraid that neither of you would approve of her."

"Harry! Of course we would! How can you even say that?" Hermione said reproachful.

"Because she's a Slytherin." Harry said and eyed her carefully for her reaction.

"Harry please, it's me. The one who said that the whole _war_ between houses was stupid and that we should all be friends! If she is sweet and you like her and she likes you, it doesn't matter what house she belonged to at Hogwarts!" She took his hands and held them firmly. "Tell me her name."

"Her name is Tracey Davis." Harry said. Hermione frowned, she recognized that name. Suddenly, a memory flash. A wedding, a young woman, wine on her new dress, "Has he talked about me?" The woman that spilled wine on her dress, she sat at their table during Ginny and Theo's wedding!

"I know who she is, we met during Ginny's wedding." Hermione said thoughtful. He was right, the girl did seem sweet. She was a friend to Malfoy and _his lot_, but she guessed that she couldn't say anything now. Not after what she had said just minutes ago.

"She was very sweet, although I didn't have a chance to talk much to her," Hermione said and smiled, "but I hope we get to meet her soon!" Harry beamed at her and nodded, happy that his friend hadn't turned her back at him.

They helped making sure that her furniture was moved to the Malfoy Manor. Some of them could be shoved up to the attic, some could be kept at her room.

Her next visit took her to Ron and there she got hugs, tea and love as well. They had discussed a lot and she also got a chance to met Mandy. She was kind and they seemed to enjoy each other's company. Ron told her that although he liked Mandy, he couldn't feel much else for her. But at least it wasn't a disaster as Hermione's own marriage with Malfoy. Ron had felt really bad for what he had said to Hermione about being cosy with Malfoy and it seemed like Mandy had talked some sense into him, as not to blame his friend. That gave her a golden star in Hermione's book and she couldn't help but think that their match was a good one!

She left their apartment with promises to visit soon and that they were welcome at the Manor.

Then she went to the Nott's residence to visit Ginny. She knew Nott had money, but not as much as Malfoy had. She pulled a string at the door that made a bell sound somewhere inside. A house elf opened and let her in.

"Mrs. Nott," he said with a very high pitched voiced and Hermione couldn't help but stare. Ginny came down the stairs almost floating. She wore a beautiful blue dress and kept her hair up. They hadn't met in a few weeks, but would never have guessed that Ginny would have transformed from that funny, sweet girl to almost a diva!

"Hermione? Merlin, I haven't seen you in weeks!" relieved Hermione realized that she sounded like the same old Ginny.

She was led to the back of a small park where they sat down with some refreshment to talk.

"Wow, Ginny! Sure you are married to a wealthy man, but the dress?" Hermione joked, but knew that she really meant it anyway. Ginny made a grimace and felt the fabric of the dress between her fingers.

"Theodore thinks that I should wear clothes that tell people about our status. I don't really care, but he told me as long as I did this he would let me shop as much as I wanted to." Ginny shrugged and winked. "How about you? How are things going at the Manor of Horror?" she said and took a deep gulp of the lemonade.

"Sometimes it isn't so bad, his mother is actually very nice and we get along fine. I really like her, but sometimes I wish I was back at Hogwarts during the war." Hermione said and smiled weakly, taking off the edge of her words.

"I guess, I am lucky then. Theo and I get along, we have never been in a real argument and we both know that we could have had a lot worse. Even our assignments have been easy, invite our parents for dinner, have a lunch date and so on."

"Our first assignment was to have a romantic picnic in the park, be romantic." Hermione said sarcastically. "Our next one is to have a ball and there are very specific rules of how we have to behave, do and so on."

Ginny stared at her, "Wow, really? I guess since he's a Malfoy and you're a War Hero you have more pressure on you. I know Ron has had some pretty serious assignments as well. They had to go shopping together, walk into the baby clothes sector and sigh and be all romantic. Luckily, it never reached the papers, both felt awkward about it all and didn't want any rumours to be spread."

Hermione was shocked, Ron hadn't told her that.

"Wow, lucky all I have to pretend is that me and Malfoy want to spend some _alone time_ during the late hours of our ball." Hermione said lightly which made Ginny laugh.

"_Alone time_? Really?" she said, "Why not write "Fuck each other's brains out" instead, that is after all what they meant!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and made a disgusted face at the thought of Draco naked. This of course made her think of him seeing her boobs. She blushed at the thought which made Ginny gasp.

"Don't tell me you and the ferret actually…" Ginny seemed to afraid to say the words out loud this time and simply stared at her.

"Oh, Merlin no!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Then what's up with the blushing?" Ginny demanded to know.

"It's nothing, it's really embarrassing and I really don't want…"

"Out with it!" Ginny said and held her hand out like she was about to receive something from Hermione. Hermione sighed ad blushed again.

"Yesterday after I showered I didn't dress, I simply had panties on and nothing more. I didn't expect Malfoy to sit in my room," she blushed again as Ginny roared with laughter. Tears ran down her face as she imagined how it all would have looked.

"It's not that funny, it was very awkward and weird and embarrassing and…"

"Okay, okay, I get it! But still…" tears kept coming and Ginny kept chuckling.

"Ginny?" someone called from the inside of their house.

"I'm out here!" she called back. Theodore Nott came walking with a note in his hands.

"Just got an invitation from Daphne we are… oh, Hello there Mrs. Malfoy." he said and smiled.

"Please, call me Hermione Mr. Nott," she said and gently nodded her head once.

"Only if you call me Theo," he smiled and turned back to Ginny. "We are invited to Daphne and her husband, one of their assignments," he gave the note to his _wife_ and she read it.

"Of course, are you two going Hermione?" she asked and Theo looked at her to see her reply.

"Yes we are, Mrs. Thomas sent her invitation to Draco this morning. I am looking forward to meet her officially, since she seemed like a good friend to both of you." Although all three of them knew that their marriages were fake, Hermione knew that it was best to pretend that everything was well and happy. She let all pretence go with only Ginny around, but she didn't know Theo well enough to talk easily with him and he seemed to think the same.

"Yes, she is! And I can't wait to introduce my lovely Ginevra to her. I am sure both of you will get along fine with her!" Hermione nodded enthusiastically and then stood up.

"I better leave; I should stop by at my mother-in-law's house and visit."

"Oh, tell her we said hi!" Theo said and Ginny nodded although she never met her. Hermione guessed that Ginny wasn't so fond of her, since her own mother never had been.

"You should stop by at my mother's house, too, someday. She misses you and wishes she could talk to you more often, but she doesn't want to intrude." Ginny smiled and shook her head gently.

"Oh, how stupid of me! Of course I will, I miss her a lot too and I do have a present for her that I think she'll like." Hermione said and hugged Ginny goodbye. "I'll tell her that she'll never have to feel like she intrudes, she is the closest thing to a mother I have now."

Theodore looked curious at her words but Ginny shook her head carefully so Hermione didn't see (she was digging in her purse to find her wand) and mouthed "Later!" at him. He simply nodded and shook Hermione's hand when she found the wand and said Goodbye.

. . .

Draco was on his knees next to his mother at her cottage. They were digging and cleaning out the garden from all kinds of weed that had been growing.

"Thank you, darling, for helping me out, I prefer doing it by hand or…"

"…or else it won't be done right," Draco finished and smiled. He didn't care doing it by hand, he loved gardening although he didn't dare admit it to anyone except his mother.

"Where is Hermione today?" Narcissa asked and glanced sideways at her son.

"Don't know, had some things to do." Draco shrugged.

"Oh, I hope she stops by later, it has been a few days since I talked to her." Narcissa mused as she pulled at a particularly tough weed that had been entwining with one of her precious roses.

"I don't know, I didn't ask." Draco mumbled and helped his mother.

"Thank you, darling!" she said as she threw it in the bucket they used for the weeds. "I don't understand how you can be so mean to her. She is a wonderful woman and you could have got somebody so much worse."

"It's just that I never liked her in school and we never got along. It's just how it is." Draco said annoyed. Narcissa smirked a little and dried her forehead with her arm, since her hand was clad in a dirty glove.

"Things can change, my darling. I think that you should be kinder to her. Talk a little more and help her out. She is in the same position as you are." Narcissa stopped pulling the weed and instead sat down in the grass. Draco followed her example and pulled of his gloves.

"I know she is, but I can't stand her! She is a know-it-all and she is just so…so… I don't know, she's just Hermione Granger!"

"She may be, but if you tried to get to know her then maybe you would change your mind. She is very kind and an attractive girl."

At this Draco snorted and shook his head.

"Don't snort, my son," Narcissa lectured, but smiled fondly. "You have to admit that she isn't unattractive or ugly. She is very beautiful."

Draco didn't look at his mother, as the image of Granger fresh from the shower was imprinted in his mind. But he forced his mind away from that, he refused to think about it and refused to think about it as a hot body.

"You're being silly." he said to his mother and shook his head.

Narcissa only laughed at him and her eyes told him that she didn't believe him at all. Angrily,either because his mother refused to believe him or because he secretly knew she was right about Granger's looks, he leaned forward and pulled out a weed. This made Narcissa laugh even more as she understood where is rage came from.

. . .

. . .

A/N: A thousand hugs and apologizes to you all for the very late update. I hope you forgive me and I'll try to do better. I hope you enjoyed it, because finally some Dramione action has begun. And it won't be the last, hehehe ;)


	10. Chapter Ten

**"Just a Stupid Law"**

A/N: And at last, my long hiatus is finally over! I owe you all a HUGE apologize for holding this chapter back such a long time! But when life gives you so many lemons, and you have so little sugar to make lemonade of it, well then you need a break to go search for the sugar! If you get what I mean… Anyway! So I have been through one of the toughest family crisis of my life, and hopefully I will never have to go through such a thing again. I am back on track once again and ready to squeeze all that bittersweet Dramione out, and mix it with my new found sugar! Okay, I'm taking this analogy a bit far, I get it…

I big **Thank You **to the wonderful **4SnowWolf** for being the most awesome Beta in the world!

. . .

**Chapter Ten**

. . .

Hermione had just been visiting Molly's house and she hadn't realised how much she had missed her until she was there. Molly had made tea and served some of her famous scones with pieces of apple in them. They had talked and talked about everything and nothing except Hermione's marriage to Malfoy. Hermione had given her the present, a recipe of bread her mother used to make when she was young. She had been really happy and put it in her cookbook and marked it so she could find it easily. Although she had rather stayed for dinner as Molly had suggested, she had to go. She wanted to see Narcissa and then get ready for the dinner with Dean and Daphne. She was really nervous and wondered what she should wear.

She apparated outside Narcissa's cottage and made her way passed the flowers to the wooden door. She knocked on the door and a house elf opened it.

"Mrs. Malfoy! The other Mrs. Malfoy is in her garden with Mr. Malfoy," he stepped away from the entrance to let her in. Hermione blushed a little, didn't really want to face her husband although she realised she had too. They had decided to forget the whole thing but such things couldn't easily be swiped out of her mind. Unless she was obliviated...

She entered the garden where she saw mother and son on their knees pulling weeds. Narcissa was laughing at something while Malfoy was angrily pulling a weed.

Hermione gently cleared her throat which made both turn their heads.

"Hello Hermione!" Narcissa said warmly but her eyes still seemed to laugh at whatever she was laughing at. She rose from the ground and pulled off her gloves to greet her daughter-in-law.

"We were just talking about you!" she smiled and gave her a light hug. "Don't want to make your dress dirty," she winked. Malfoy was pulling the weeds even harder.

"Be careful my son, you'll rip my whole garden if you continue like that," she said without even looking at him. "Let's take a break for a little while. Tea?" she asked and Hermione shook her head, smiling.

"No thank you, I have been visiting some friends and I haven't had anything else but tea!"

"I understand, darling," The all sat down around the small table. Narcissa and Hermione were talking but Malfoy sat completely silent. They only talked of a short time when Draco rose from his seat.

"Granger, we better hurry and get ready for tonight," Hermione looked at him surprised.

"I don't need that much time to get ready, we can stay a little longer,"

"We're not going home, we need to fix you some new clothes for tonight,"

"Of course," Narcissa said and rose from her seat, her eyes once again had that special look that said that she was amused. Hermione stood up as well and thanked Narcissa for the talk. After the proper goodbyes, they walked to the front of the house.

"I really don't need another dress, Malfoy," she said and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you do. If we are going to pretend that we are a happy couple, I have to spoil you and you have to look absolutely fabulous. If you came in a crappy dress, people will realise that we are not happy,"

"Why?" Hermione asked puzzled.

"Because everyone knows that I would never let my wife walk like that if I really cared about her,"

"How thoughtful of you," Hermione muttered and walked after her husband.

He reached out and grabbed her hand and before she could say anything or pull back from his grip, he had turned around and apparated them.

. . .

They re-appeared at Diagon Alley's Apparition Point and Malfoy let go of her hand. Together they walked towards Madam Malkin's and as soon as they reached other people, the both took the other's hands and walked a little bit closer to each other.

"So what color do you want?" Malfoy asked cheerful as they walked passed the small shops.

"I don't know! I can't decide," Hermione smiled and giggled a little. They arrived outside Madame Malkin's and entered the shop.

"Oh, hello Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy!" Madame Malkin said. "It's a real pleasure to see you both. What can I do for you," Draco nodded towards his presumed other half.

"My wife here and I are invited to a friend's house this evening. So we're looking for a new dress for her," he said and smiled towards Granger. She smiled back and nodded.

"Oh dear, I guess it will be quite fancy right? I'm sorry but those dresses take a little more time to do than normal and could not be done till tonight!"

"You don't have any ready dresses, still in our price range of course, that you could show us?" Draco said and winked a little. She smiled a little nervously.

"I guess I can show you the ones that already are done. But they will not be as good as one I make especially for you Mrs. Malfoy,"

"That will be fine, Madame," Hermione reassured her. Then they walked after the shorter woman to the section where they had already finished dresses. Most of them were cheap, since wealthy wizards and witches preferred to buy their clothes tailor made , while not so wealthy families were satisfied with off the shelf garments.

They reached the small sector where the expensive clothes were.

"Here we are, why don't we take a look at what you are after and then we will try them?" Madame Malkin said cheerfully. The younger witch nodded and looked around.

After a little while she had chosen four dresses, one purple, one blue, one red and a golden dress. She walked into the large changing room with Madame Malkin who would help here while Draco waited outside.

After a few minutes she stepped outside with the red dress on. It was a halterneck in satin that sat tightly around her waist and then flowed around her legs. She spun around a few times and looked at her reflection.

"You look stunning!" Madame Malkin said.

Draco rose from the chair he had been sitting on and walked to her.

"Sorry darling for saying this but although you were a Gryffindor, red isn't really your color," he smirked a little at her, making her frown at him.

"Although I don't agree with you, I am not fond of the halterneck," she walked back to the changing room with Malkin tripping along. She soon was out again, with the golden dress. It had short sleeves and a deep cleavage. Draped around her waist was a transparent, sparkling fabric.

"Really?" was the only thing Draco said and shook his head. Hermione marched back to the changing room.

She tried to two others as well, but Draco dismissed them all. He rose from his seat and walked towards the dresses and searched around. Dress robes for women had really become more fashionable. The old kind, the one they had used during their fourth year Yule ball, were still in use. But more and more young witches preferred the muggle styled dresses.

He picked up a dress and smirked as he walked over to Granger.

"Darling, try this one," he said, faking his voice to sound loveable. He gave her the dress and was pleased to hear several scoffs and grunts while it was tried on.

She stepped out wearing a green silk dress that hugged her body like a second skin. It was strapless and long with a slit up to her mid-thigh on her left side. It didn't reveal much of her cleavage, but it added a teasing effect. Even Draco had to admit, she looked beautiful. Her eyes sparkled with sarcasm as she said:

"Well, I can say for sure that Slytherin colors don't suit me," and turned around to change again.

"No, don't! It looks perfect," Draco said and stood up. She turned around slowly and looked thoughtful at him and then her expression change to a display of anger.

"You are just messing with me!" she hissed so Madame Malkin couldn't hear them.

"No, I swear. Ask Malkin for her opinion," he said, grapping her shoulders and turning her around.

"Ohh!" Madame Malkin exclaimed. "It fits you perfectly! And that green really makes your hair look glossier!"

Hermione suddenly looked unsure. She fidgeted a bit with the dress and glanced at her reflection in the mirror.

Malfoy knew what she was thinking; her friend Ginny would really disapprove of the colour. He coughed gently making her meeting his eyes in the reflection.

"You know...eh...it's only a color..." he said. Her eyes widened in surprise as she realised that he actually tried to comfort her. He coughed again, nervously.

"Well, since even though you were the brightest witch in our year, you seem too dumb to realize that for yourself.

But she simply raised her eyebrows and turned around to face Madame Malkin.

"I'll take it," she said and went back to change into her normal clothes.

As they paid for the dress and thanked the witch, Draco was wondering why he had tried to reassure her that it wouldn't matter what color it was. He simply waved it off that his mother's words had stuck in his head to be nice to her, and reminded himself that he wouldn't do that again.

The witch supposed to be his willing wife looked at her watch.

"We still have an hour or so before we need to return back to the Manor. I was thinking about doing something with my nails, they really need a manicure. I know a small place around the corner that does those kinds of things and they can do my hair at the same time. Let's meet again at the Apparition Point in forty-five minutes?"

Draco nodded and decided to look in some shops while he waited for her. He really needed to get away from her for some time so he could set his mind straight and stop saying nice things to her.

. . .

Hermione and Malfoy arrived back at the Manor. He had apparated them to the front steps so she didn't have to walk the way up to the door with her newly done hair and nails. Her hair was up in an elegant bun with small curls framing her eyes. Still, Draco had refused to let her apparate into the house without him. It took a special spell to allow a person (other than the house elves) to apparate within the boundaries of the actual building. Since their marriage wasn't real, he wouldn't let her get access to it.

As they entered the house, Hermione walked upstairs to change. She glanced at the table and her bouquet and smiled to herself. She undressed and then opened the package with the silky dress. Caressing the soft fabric with her fingers. She loved the touch of silk, it was so smooth and, well silky. She gently stepped inside it and pulled it up, closing the zipper on the side. She wore stockings underneath it, because of the slit.

Someone knocked at her door and she called out:

"Come in!"

Malfoy stepped inside, dressed and finished in black clothes that made him look even paler. He held a box in his hand, which he reached out to her.

"My mother reminded me of these. It's the Malfoy family's jewellery set. It is supposed to be worn by the Manor's mistress and since that's technically you, because of this marriage, you can borrow them for tonight,"

She took the box and slowly opened it.

"Oh," she said and stared at the beautiful pieces. There was a silver necklace with several diamonds sitting in rows and hung from each other. There was a matching bracelet and earrings as well. She looked up at him and smiled.

"They are beautiful."

He nodded shortly and then walked out of the room. She shook her head, he was one strange man...

. . .

Hermione stood in a big room with a glass of champagne in her hands and looked around. It was a beautiful white drawing room. Along one wall was a table with food and drinks. In one corner were several light blue couches where Daphne and her friends sat. There were quite a few people and Draco stood with some old classmates and talked. Ginny hadn't arrived yet so she felt quite alone. She tapped the glass with her finger then took a sip while looking around. She hated events like this, where she felt out of place and didn't know anyone.

"Mrs. Malfoy? Why don't you join us?" a light female voice said. Hermione turned around and met Tracey Davis eyes. She smiled at her and nodded towards the couches where Daphne and the rest had turned and looked at them. Hermione nodded and smiled, feeling very nervous.

"Right into the snake pit," she thought and straightened her shoulders.

She sat down next to Tracey, face to face with Daphne.

"So Mrs. Malfoy..." she begun.

"Please, call me Hermione," She smiled and gave a slight nod.

"Of course," Daphne smiled brightly. "How are you?"

"I'm fine thank you, I love your home!" Hermione said and looked around as to point out what she meant.

"Oh, thank you! It used to be my parents but they moved when Dean and I married. Dean lived in such a small apartment and we both agreed that it would be best to move here!" She laughed lightly and the others joined in.

"But Malfoy Manor is nothing compared to this! The gardens, the big lake!"

Hermione hadn't a clue about what big lake she was talking about, she only knew of the small one in the park. Perhaps it was a little further away. She nodded anyway enthusiastically.

"It is so beautiful during the sunrise. The fog over the lake as the sky is lightly painted pink!" Hermione lied and sighed. The other women followed her lead and sighed, as if everyone had seen it. Everyone except a pug-faced girl who lightly snorted. More exactly, it was Malfoy's old girlfriend Pansy Parkinson. Daphne shot a warning glance towards her before turning back towards Hermione to continue to chat. Everyone was so sweet and nice towards her, although she couldn't decide if they really were nice or just pretended since they were all friends of her alleged husband.

After a few minutes, Malfoy walked towards them and bent down to her ear whispering so only she could hear:

"Better enjoy yourself, this is probably the only chance you have to socialize with superior witches," he then kissed her earlobe gently, making it seem like he had just said something naughty. The other girls giggled and Hermione blushed, which made the others giggle even more.

"You just wait and you'll see who the superior is," she winked at him and smiled like she meant something utterly private which made the other women shriek with laughter and say things:

"That's right!" and "You show him!"

Draco backed away, faking a smile and then turned to speak with Nott who had just arrived.

Ginny stood at his side, arm-in-arm with her 'husband'. She wore a red dress with short sleeves and decorated with white pearls and her hair was up in a beautiful bun.

She glanced around, saw Hermione and smiled. She raised her hand as to say Hello but didn't come over. Hermione turned back to the ladies who had begun talking about the latest gossip.

"Have you heard about Mina? She's pregnant! And I hear that the father isn't her husband," Parkinson said and everyone begun gasping and giggling about it. Hermione had no idea who Mina was, but she felt sorry for the girl for being the subject of upper-class gossip. She rose from her seat. Everyone immediately looked at her and she suddenly felt nervous. They looked at her like they expected her to say something.

"I-I am sorry, but I just want to say hi to my friend Ginny and her husband Mr. Nott," she said and smiled.

"Why don't you bring her over?" asked Daphne kindly and smiled. Pansy snorted again and coughed to hide a laugh.

"Yes, Pansy?" Daphne said. Pansy shut up but smirked a little.

"Honestly, isn't it enough that we must stand her here, but now we have to get the weasel as well? They should know better than come into our group and..."

"Enough!" Daphne exclaimed. "These are my guest and are also married to two of our very close friends. You will show them the same respect as you would to any other woman in our group."

Pansy stopped smirking and looked away. Hermione nodded and smiled towards Daphne. She smiled back and went to her seat.

"Ginny," Hermione said as she walked towards her red-headed friend. Ginny sighed with happiness but didn't let go of her husband's arm.

"I'm stuck next to him until dinner. To show a united front or whatever," Ginny mumbled to Hermione and rolled her eyes, before she assumed her smile again.

"Darling, I must show you the amazing library!" Nott said to Ginny and pulled her away. Hermione hid a smile as she drank from her champagne. Ginny didn't like libraries, she couldn't stand the smell or the amount of books.

Draco, who had appeared next her, snorted lightly.

"What?" asked Hermione and looked after the pair.

"The library is fancy yes, but doesn't beat the Malfoy's," he said and sipped his glass.

"I didn't even know you had a library," she said and eyed him.

"We do," was his only answer and smiled. She shook her head and snorted before walking away. He must have kept that from her deliberately, since he knew she loved libraries. He grabbed her arm with his long, pale fingers and gently tugged her back.

"Be nice, kitty-cat," he breathed in her ear which sent a wave of shivers along her spine and made the fine hairs on her arm to stand up. He seemed to notice it and chuckled low.

"Dream on, this is as close as you'll get to soft words whispered into your ear," Hermione jerked away from him.

"It wasn't from pleasure," she hissed. "It's creepy."

"Careful now. We have eyes on us, kitty," he warned her but smirked.

"Don't call me that," Hermione said and walked away anyway. She hated how he could get under her skin like that.

She walked back towards Daphne's group and heard them gossip over the clothes the guests were wearing.

"...it's hideous! What was she thinking when she got that green piece she calls dress!"

Hermione stopped and stared at the girls who hadn't seen her yet.

"I know! She looks like an old dragon," giggled Daphne. At this point, Hermione straightened her shoulders and walked over to the group. They were still giggling when they looked up at her.

"Oh, Mrs. Malfoy! We were just talking about Miss Green and her choice of clothes," Hermione looked at the way they were nodding at and saw a young girl standing in a horrific dress that looked like it was made out of dragon scales that had lost their shine a long time ago. Hermione pitied her.

"It was an odd choice of dress, I admit. But I have seen worse," she smiled and remembered Luna Lovegood.

"Oh really?" asked Parkinson and smirked. Hermione nodded but didn't say anything else.

The party moved on to the dinner, which where the tasted really good. She had wished Harry and Ron had been here, but they hadn't really been close to Dean after Hogwarts and Hermione only got here since she was married to Malfoy. She had briefly said hello to Dean and Seamus who also had been invited. But there hadn't been time to really talk. Ginny had stayed close to Nott all evening, but she seemed bored.

The evening went smoothly, Hermione as bored to the brink of tears, but at least she had the champagne to drown in. After the dinner, they went back into the drawing room for some drinks and chit chat, the only difference was that Ginny was now allowed to sit with them.

During the evening Pansy kept sending evil glances towards Hermione. But other than that, the other women were quite friendly. Daphne turned several times toward Hermione and smiled and asked her questions about what she thought about a topic.

Around eight o'clock, Malfoy came and gently touched her arm.

"Love? We better get going," he said and smiled at her that was supposed to look warm and filled with love. Hermione wasn't fooled, but played along.

"Of course," she said and turned to Ginny to say goodbye. Daphne showed them to door, where she kissed them both on their cheeks.

"Come by any time you want, Hermione! It was nice to get to know you," she smiled her brightest and friendliest smile. Hermione nodded and missed the look of suspicion on her husband's face.

"I will," she replied. "And you are most welcome to the Manor whenever you want! Right, Darling?"

"Of course," answered Malfoy automatically and nodded. A loud pop behind them scared all three of them and without a thought, Hermione grabbed Malfoy's hand as she turned around.

"Blaise! You scared us!" exclaimed Daphne. "Where have you been?"

Blaise smiled at the hostess but glanced at Hermione and Draco's entwined hands.

"Sorry, Daphne! I got caught up with work. I couldn't get away until now," he turned to Hermione and smiled easily.

"Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, are you already leaving?" Hermione nodded and quickly let go of her husband's hand.

"Sadly, yes," answered Malfoy and put his hand on her lower back.

"Perhaps next time, Zabini!" he said bowed his head towards the other man and walked quickly away with Hermione, so that she had no other choice but to move as well or else she would fall.

As soon as they arrived back home, Hermione stopped him.

"What was that all about?" she demanded.

"What do you mean?" he asked as nonchalant as he could.

"I mean, almost pushing me as far away as you could when Blaise arrived," he crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. Malfoy shrugged.

"Because I don't like him, and he isn't a very good man,"

"What do you mean by that? And why do you care if he isn't?" she asked angrily.

"I don't care really, I'm just telling you what is commonly known! Ask him yourself or find out by other means. But I don't actually care what he will do to you, all I want is that he stays far away from me!" was the rather cryptic answer. "But since we're already playing 20 questions, it's my turn," Now it was Hermione's turn to shrug.

"Why did you take my hand?"

"I got a freight and nearly fell, so I grabbed the closest thing nearby," she said smoothly without blinking.

Malfoy laughed at her: "Did you come up with that story on the way back? It didn't feel like you were falling, not even the slightest tug."

Hermione snorted softly.

"Yeah right, I took your hand because I am insanely in love with you and just had to touch your hand right there and then! Please, stop being such a git and so full of yourself," She walked away, but like at the party, Malfoy grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Really, kitty-cat?" he whispered in her ear and smirked. With a quick movement, Hermione punched his side so he let go.

"I said, don't call me that," she hissed and hurried up to the Manor, but she could hear his chuckling all the way up.

. . .

. . .

A/N: A bit short I know, but hopefully you liked it anyway. Not my best chapter I admit, but there will be plenty of more!


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